This Ain't No Place For The Weary Kind
by phoward
Summary: A few weeks have passed since Bohannon went on the run, Miss Lily Bell has made a life altering decision, Eva remains with Elam; all the while Durant's obsession & lust for the fair maiden of the West grows stronger & he will stop at nothing to have her. Pairings are Elam/Eva, Cullen/OC, Cullen/Lily, Lily/Durant, Durant/Mrs.Durant, Mickey/Nell, Joseph/Ruth, Ruth/Sean.
1. To Stay Or To Go

Alrighty I'm going to give a Hell On Wheels fanfic a try. This, Westerns & Civil War Era, is out of my writing realm but it's also my fav historical period in time. I know I already have a bunch of stories out but I just couldn't resist doing this. Anyways I own nothing just this story idea for this fanfic.

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><p><strong>To Stay Or To Go<strong>

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><p>The heat had only gotten worse in the past few weeks since he had ran off, evading the law, in the middle of the night after a stolen glance at that fair beauty known as Lily Bell. He rode his chocolate brown horse through the plains of sun bleached tall prairie grasses, never resting. Cullen Bohannon couldn't rest, he was a wanted man and that mark upon him right there made it impossible for him to call anyplace with any ounce of civilization home.<p>

He had once been a family man, a homebody, that craved to run off in search of new sights and adventures and when he took his chance at leaving his family it would end in a deadly result for his family. Returning home from war, expecting the awaiting arms of a soft hearted wife and an eager boy, he was met with the horrific images of his family tortured and dead by the hands of Yankees. After burying his wife and son he vowed to avenge them, therefore setting off on his mission of mixed justice and hate. Only that mission had led him to becoming an outlaw, to his current circumstances.

A bead of sweat ran down his nose, dripping off at the tip, as another ran down from his brow to his cheek. His black hat provided shade from the blinding sun as he galloped away, not knowing where he's going, just as he's done for weeks now. His clothes were getting soaked with the amount of sweat his body was producing and the wind that past him by as he rode at a fast speed chilled him to the bone for a mere instant while his hair danced wildly from under his hat in the wind.

All of a sudden in the quiet, crisp, air, there was a popping cackle-the sound of a gunshot. Cullen looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes as he saw a posse of 3 men behind in at a far enough distance that was still in shooting range. "Damnit." Cullen grumbled as his quickly grabbed his revolver from his hip. He quickly looked over his shoulder, aimed it at some silver haired man, and shot the man right off his horse. The horse, owned by the shot man, had run off while dragging the man along since the man's foot was caught in the stirrup.

"Give yer self-up, Bohannon!" One of the bounty hunters called out to him as sounds of gunfire could be heard. Horse hooves galloped on at fast paces, sending dirt and bits of grass flying in a ball of dust trailing behind the animal.

"Yea, we don't wanna be killin's ya cuz ya's worth more alive." The other bounty hunter chuckled as he took a shot at Bohannon; a shot that had barely buzzed by the man's cheek and had most likely caused some grazing.

"Christ." Cullen groaned as he quickly turned around and shot at both of the bounty hunters while tightening his grip of his horse's reigns, causing the animal to make a tight and impromptu turn.

One man was shot twice in the chest and the other was shot once in the chest and twice in the gut. Those bounty hunters were dead now aas the lie bleeding helpless on the ground in a sickening still and stiff way.

"Looks like I ain't going nowhere with you, you dead now." Cullen chuckled as he studied the dead men for a quick moment before riding off once again.

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><p>The sun was beating down on the great plains of the West, causing everyting to burn up with an invisable fire. Railroad workers, men of all colors, races, creeds, and religions, slaved away as they busted and broke their backs in the hellish heat while many of the women folk, whores and decent, sought shelter from the heat in the many tents adorning the make shift traveling city of Hell On Wheels. The heat was so bad that even the working girls had taken the day off, opting instead to wor twice as hard that night.<p>

In a tent placed amongst many nameless people's tents a fair blonde was sitting and conversing with her only friend, the dark haired tattooed former working girl, as they took shelter from the hot and blistering sun. "Eva, if you truly love Elam then stay by his side and support him." She advised the other lady after hearing her pour her heart out in need of advice and help.

"Is that what you did with your husband, Miss Lily Bell?" Eve asked as she played with her raven ponytail that was sleekly running down her bare shoulder.

"Yes, I was right by Robert's side as he surveyed land for a dream of a railroad; I'm honoring his memory by ensuring the road be built too." Lily sighed in a small huff with empty blue eyes as her hand subconsciously rested on her belly.

"You're expecting, huh?" Eva pointed towards the blonde's belly.

"But how-" Lily began to ask until her words were quickly cut off by Eva's.

Eva explained how she figured out that Lily was expecting a child with a warm smile on her face. "Your hands have been laying on your womb lately, only ever seen an expecting woman do that. So, you ain't quite showing so you what 2 or 3 months in?"

Lily nodded her head. "Almost 3." She let out in almost a whispered tone.

"You gunna raise a baby with no Pa on the rail road?" Eva asked rather bluntly but the woman was never known to be shy. Having been a whore, before Elam came along and saved her from that life by claiming her as his and only his, she had never watched her mouth and she still didn't; whatever shot out of it was said.

"Yes and I shall do whatever it takes to give my child a life." Lily quickly answered with such fire for a woman. Most women would be out looking for a husband to care for them and to pawn the child off on but not Lily; she was an entirely different breed of woman. She was determined to get by on her own; she was a head strong but beautiful woman that was going to survive in a man's world all on her own two feet.

"Well, Miss Lily Bell, I can be of great help to you. I know bout birthing babies, from when I was with them Indians years before."

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><p>The black rail car with the silk window coverings stood still, only a certain select people ever went in and ussually they were summoned in. Summoned as a king would do but yet again the occupant of the car was a king, a king of the rail road. His crooked vission and lust for money was the driving force behind the construction of the railroad. But anoter lust was the reason why an emancipated man was nearing the king's car.<p>

The tall chocolate skinned man entered the shrewd businessman's rail car, knowing that he was going to be sent on a money making errand. "Ah, Mista Durant, you wanna see me?" He took off his hat and nodded his head out of respect for the big boss man.

"Yes, I need somebody to do a bounty hunting job for me." Durnt's tongue clicked on the roof of his mouth as he sat his fat, pudgy figure up straighter in his desk chair.

Elam took a seat in the chair in front of Durant's mahogany desk, a desk covered in maps and other kinds of paperwork. Elam waited for the crooked tycoon to speak but when he did no such thing he broke the silence by asking, "Oh who, Mista?"

"Oh your old foreman, Mr. Bohannon." Durant said simply as he held out a golden cigar case, filled with the finest Cuban cigars, in Elam's reach. His lips curled into a sinister smile, one that would chill most men to their core.

But Elam wasn't like most men…

Elam's brown eyes grew wide for he didn't want to hunt down a man, the only man, that he considered a friend and an equal. "But why me?" He asked, maybe a bit too quickly, as he took a cigar that was offered to him.

"Because he's a dangerous criminal that needs to be brought in plus it's a messy job that nobody seems to be able to get done, so that leaves you my good Sir."

"How much?" Elam asked, not knowing why he even did so since his mind was already made up on what path he was going to take.

"The $250 bounty and a $50 bonus from me as well." The ginger haired man with a cubby face explained as he puffed on his prized cigar, only the best that the money earned by the blood, sweat, and tears of others could buy.

Elam quickly did the sum in his head. He knew it was a lot of money but he also could tell by the idden maliciousness in the rich and shrewd Irishman's tongue that his reasoning behind the bounty being fulfilled on Cullen's head was more than a civic duty to the law. Hell they were in the West, the law didn't even count now did it? No. "So $300 then?" He asked as he dusted off some ashes from his cigar into the crystal square glass ashtray that was on the desk before him.

"Yes, now get out of my sight and find that Bohannon man." Mr. Durant waved his hand, making the smoke from his cigar waft in all different direction, motioning for his do anything for money worker to get on about his business.

Little did he know the true point of where his dirty worker's loyalties lied…

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><p>"Elam, what you doing here in Miss Lily Bell's tent for, can't wait for me to get home now can you?" Eva's apple red lips curled into a smile exposing her pearly whites as she titled her head at her lover while he made his way into the white linen tent being held up by a huge tree branch.<p>

"Aws, Eva, I came to tell ya I gots to goes lookin' for Bohannon, I won't be home for long time." Elam explained to his love, even though Lily had also heard since after all the words were being said in her tent right in front of her.

"Elam, why ever would you be out chasing after Mr. Bohannon for?" Eva asked with a confused look to her eyes since she knew that the men had been friends in the camp and she knew that Elam wasn't a man to turn on his people, his friends.

"Mista Durant sending's me, thatta be why." Elam just sighed as he cocked his head slightly to the left."

Lily's eyes went wide for she couldn't believe that Tomas Durant, a man of business with a sick obsession for her, was sending a friend of Bohannon's out to find him and sadly possibly kill him. Hell, Lily saw the wanted posters, even heard the reasons why behind it from a marshal or two whenever they came, but she honestly couldn't blame him. He was grieving, his wife and son were killed while he was off at war-killed by the enemy he swore to protect them from-and now he wanted justice and revenge. She knew how he felt; she honestly did, since she felt the exact same way after the death of her beloved Robert.

Eva respected Bohannon because he was kind to Elam and even saved him from being hung; he was also kind to her and didn't look down at her being with a half black half white freed slave man. She also knew that he had been a great help to Lily and also that he was a big driving force behind the railroad meeting the deadline since he was the foreman/overseer. All she could think of to say to her man was, "Be safe, Elam, and please don't hurt the man. He was decent to us, all of us."

"Wasn't planning on it, now be safe and stay heres with Miss Lily Bell while I be gone." Elam told Eva as he gently traced her cheek with his hand, staring into her eyes, not wanting to go and leave her even though he knew that he had to.

"Yes, Elam." Eve nodded her head as the dark skinned hand moved away from her light skinned face. She felt nervous, not wanting anything to happen to Elam or the outlaw Bohannon.

Elam was just about to exit the tent whenever he was stopped by Lily placing a hand on his shoulder. "Elam, when you find Mr. Bohannon tell him from me not to let the loss of his family destroy him for it's just about done that already; tell him his wife would want him to find peace not agony." She told him, wanting her message to be relayed to Bohannon.

Truthfully Lily missed Cullen's rugged manly vibe, she missed his dark piercing eyes, she missed his musky smoke and whiskey tainted smell, and she missed their idle conversations, but she knew that she was a grieving widow pregnant with her deceased husband's child and that such thoughts were out of line. That nothing good could ever come from this senseless addiction to the man that was Cullen Bohannon, the grieving widower fuelled by hate and revenge.

"Yes, Miss Lily Bell, I will." And with that being said the tall man with the creamy brown skin tilted his hat and left the tent, leaving the ladies to get back to their talking and knitting and sewing while he went on an endless manhunt to more or less warn his friend that Durant was after his ass and wanted his head on a silver platter.


	2. Daylight Fades Away

Sorry this took a while to edit and get uploaded. I was busy with cleaning up my house, moving in new furniture, getting rid of old furniture, and rearranging furniture. Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Oh yea there's no Durant in this chapter. Don't you just wish that Durant would fall off a cliff or something… LOL

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><p><strong>Daylight Fades Away<strong>

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><p>Two days have passed since Elam had set off on his quest to find Bohannon and so far there was no sign of him. The tired man with the creamy chocolate skin was regretting taking on the task of finding the white man that had been a friend to him in order to warn him about the bounty and bonus that Durant was offering instead of arresting or killing him.<p>

As his horse galloped along the grassy plain he knew that Durant truly believed that he would arrest or kill his friend, that money had bought his loyalty. Elam's loyalty lied only with himself and who he felt deserved it and frankly he didn't fell that the rich and powerful boss man deserved it.

Unlike the law and Durant, Elam knew the driving force behind the murders that Bohannon committed and he stood behind his belief that the man was right with what he had done.

As the air whipped around him and the puffy clouds danced their endless dance in the blue sky Elam couldn't help but let his mind drift to Eva, his pretty lady love.

Oh how he felt is mission was useless and endless, only the good lord knew how long it'd be before he found Mista Bohannon. His tummy was rumbling from not eating in nearly a day and he was beginning to smell awful, the heat causing his sweat and body odor to be exaggerated greatly and empasised, making him a bit sick to his stomach.

Oh how Elam would give anything for a nice bath in the bath house and for a night with his Eva.

He looked at the sky and sighed, he knew that he would be traveling deep into the night, working on little to no sleep since he just wanted to find Bohannon, have a word with him, and then go back to the hellish work camp he called home.

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><p>The chocolate brown horse skidded to a stop as its rider pulled on its reigns hastily. The animal stood still amongst a random backdrop of tree bark and leaves as the gruff rider dismounted. His face had sweat and dust caked on it while his limbs were sore from being in a cramped riding position for so long. He quickly hitched his horse's reigns to a tree branch before retrieving his sack from the back of his horse. He took in his surroundings for a moment and decided it was a secluded enough spot to make camp.<p>

Secluded areas were all that Bohannon knew anymore. It was all his life was becoming, one big secluded mess. He had thought that his task of revenge would be cut and dry, simple as pie, but he was sadly mistaken and it wasn't. He had made mistakes in his judgment calls but he had to ponder on whether they were really mistakes or not for he surely wasn't sorry about anything that he had done. He was only sorry about one thing and one thing only, taking the life of an innocent man.

Bohannon's calloused hands took a canteen and a tin cup from his side saddle bag. He poured some water into the cup and watered his horse with it, making sure the animal didn't overheat and thirst to death. As the horse lapped up the water droplets spilt from the cup landing on the ground as well as rolling down Cullen's hand. Whenever the horse refused anymore drink Cullen took a slug of water from his canteen and then decided to find an animal decent to hunt and eat for he was hungry. So hungry that his belly was growling louder than a great big mountain bear ready to attack.

The light was gradually receding, growing a tint bit darker in the sky, indicating the third and final day's mealtime was approaching and that nightfall would soon after befall.

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><p>Two days ago Elam embarked on his journey, him being gone so long worried Eva. Naturally since the man that she loved was out in only God knows where. Eva had been thankful for her friend Lily's kindness. Lily even tried to keep Eva's mind off of worrying by telling her stories of England.<p>

"Oh, did I tell you about how I met Robert?" Lily asked as she and Eva sat at a wooden table in the dinning tent.

"Yes, Miss Lily Bell, you already did but I don't mind ya telling me again." Eva politely smiled at her friend, hiding her racked nerves.

"Well, since I already told you I'll just tell you another story."

"Sure, Miss Lily Bell, I like to hear bout being a proper lady. Never been nor met a lady in my life 'fore you."

"Being raised up as a proper young lady is no fun, with all the tea parties and balls that must be attended along with the way one must conduct themselves." Lily began to explain as she wrinkled her nose up at the concoction that the Hell on Wheels camp cook considered stew before taking a spoonful of it into her mouth to eat.

The cook, who looked like he hadn't bathed in weeks, was a former army cook, Lily didn't know for whom, and his food rarely even qualified as food. The meat often tasted and looked like shoe leather while the vegetables were either hard and undercooked or too mushy and overcooked, also the stew's broth was way too salty for any normal person's taste buds.

Eva swallowed down a salty chunk of stew meat. "I'd love to get to be able to go to a tea party. Never been."

The blonde was amazed by how much the sophisticated culture captivated her raven haired friend, how she showed so much interest and how she craved to do things a proper lady should. Miss Bell knew that by her fair completion, sparkling eyes, and golden locks that she was the epitome of a lady even though she secretly sought to break free and live life her own way with no restricting boundaries. Perhaps that's the real reason why she preferred the West to the East, no real need or reason to be a proper lady anymore. Everything now was about survival. Survival, oh how she wonder about the way one Mr. Cullen Bohannon was surviving out on his own with no human contact for sanity, how he survived without dare she say companionship. Lily knew that it was wrong of her to be wondering about how long Bohannon had gone without simple companionship but she couldn't help but wonder about the haunted widower, being a lonely widower herself she wouldn't deny that she missed the companionship of a man. Even though she had friends it just wasn't the same as companionship of a man, one who you can count on to be there for you in the best and worst times. Now, yes she was lonely but she wasn't desperate and that was the reason why she turned down Durant. She wasn't going to lower herself in becoming a mistress to a man that she couldn't stand at all. With the rustic and gruff Bohannon she felt things stir… Lily quickly shook her head to snap herself out of improper thought of a man while she was a pregnant and mourning widow.

Lily looked at her uniquely beautiful friend and just smiled. "Well, I'll just have to arrange for us to have our own private tea party."

"Thank you, Miss Lily Bell; I sure as hell would like that." Eva gratefully thanked her one and only friend, thankful that for once in her life a woman wasn't calling her filthy names or looking down upon her for her past; for doing what she had to do to survive.


	3. Burnt Bird & Bounty Quest

For some reason this chapter took me a long time to get just right. I rewrote it so many times but now I'm finally happy with it.

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><p><strong>Burnt Bird &amp; Bounty Quest<strong>

He sat by the fire alongside his improvised and handmade spit, roasting and turning a bird for his nightly meal. The smell of scorching flesh made his stomach churn, the small squall wasn't roasting as it should and instead was burning to a crisp causing a sickening smell to fill the air but he was used to sickening smells and burnt meat by now. It seems that he was made for torture since the tiniest things could make him clench his jaw in anguish and disgust these days.

Long gone where the days of home cooked meals of fat, crispy, fried chicken with buttermilk mashed potatoes, fried greens, and pie. Long gone were the nights of rocking on a porch chair smoking a cigar while gazing at the stars in the night sky with his lovely wife Mary. Long gone were the nights that he ordered his young boy to listen to his ma and to wash up before bed, shoving him off with a ruffled head of hair and a simple goodnight son. Long gone were those days, days that he longed to get back. He would give anything to get them back; to be back on his farm with his family in Meridian then in the middle of only God knows where running from only God knows who in order to save his sorry ass life.

After looking at the burnt bird once more he decided it was decent enough to eat so he removed it from the spit and dropped it on the small blanket he was sitting on, so that the meat wouldn't get any dirt on it to harm its taste.

In a mere instant the badly tasting and burnt bird was devoured and all that was left was nothing but a small carcass. Bohannon grabbed his nearby canteen from the ground and took a few large slug of water, washing down the taste of his wilderness cooked meal.

How he was craving whiskey at that very moment, he just wanted to feel that strong amber liquid burn quickly down his throat as he downed it. But he didn't have any whiskey; that pissed him off too.

Elam squinted his eyes as he spotted a small fire in the distance. He knew that where there was a fire there was a camp and where there was a camp there was a chance that Bohannon was the one making camp. He trotted his horse towards the flickering flames dancing in the dark shadows in order to find the source they emerged from.

Once he came across a man lying on his back with his hat covering his face, to shield out the orange light, by the camp fire he knew who that man was. He could tell by the dark suit and the wiry hair sprawled on the blanket on the ground. Elam stood above the man and cleared his throat before waking the man by saying, "Mista Bohannon, it's me Elam Ferguson, Mista Durant after ya tail."

"Huh?" Bohannon groaned groggily as he took the hat off of his face.

"I saids that Mista Durant want ya hunted down, shot like a dog too if he could." Elam said a bit slower this time around, so that the half sleepy man could understand his words.

"Ah, so he sent you to do his dirty work?" Cullen asked as his hand went instantly to his hipbone, where his gun rested.

"I ain't bringin' ya in, wouldn't be right I reckon but I is giving ya warning though." Elam explained as he took a seat by Bohannon at the fire.

"You came all the way out here to warn me, now that's pure horse shit if I ever saw it." Cullen chuckled, sitting up now, while never moving his hand from his hip.

The dark man's jaw tensed up and he quickly whipped his head around to stare at his friend, to defend himself. "I ain't working for Durant."

The Southern man let his hand fall to his side and he just nodded his head. "Good for you, neither am I anymore."

"I gotta head on back, my Eva's been with Miss Lily Bell and I know she must be worried bout me."

"You still with Eva, hmm after my last night in Hell on Wheels I thought ya'll were done. Saw her dancing with Toole."

"We had a disagreement, don't mean we done." Elam chuckled, knowing full well that Cullen having once been married should know how lovers quarrels are.

"Ah, I see, so how is Miss Bell?" Cullen asked before he could even think. He didn't mean to ask about her but it just slipped out, she was on his mind whether he was aware of it or not.

"As good as she can be but she did tell me to give you a message."

"What? Stop killing people, vile Mister Bohannon you." Cullen said with sarcasm dripping from his mouth like foam that drips from a rapid dog's mouth.

"No, she told me to tell ya notta let your family loss destroy ya and your wife would want peace not agony for ya." Elam repeated the words he wa instructed to pass on, words of wisdom filled with genuine care and concern.

"Tell her I'm a lost cause; already destroyed with agony. Nothing gunna change that either." Cullen stared into the dancing flames, absently picking at the ground, shutting his eyes in shame. Shame that he had screwed up, shame that he felt worse instead of better, shame that he still couldn't grieve like a normal man would but grieved as a former captain that wanted to enforce that ancient eye for an eye rule.

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><p>Thomas Durant stood at the window of his caboose, staring out into the sea of white tents in the distance. His gaze locking on one tent in particular, the tent on the lovely fair Western maiden Lily. He couldn't help but wonder what small thing ignited a spark between Lily and that Bohannon man that was missing between him and the lovely Miss Bell.<p>

It was no secret that Durant wanted her, that he was smitten with lust not love for the young maiden. Ah, he might claim it was love but the fire in his groin and not his heart just proved that it was more so lust then love.

Now can a greedy mongrel obsessed with riches and jewels even be capable of love? The man had a wife and children back East that he practically had nothing to do with. How could a man do that, not just to his wife but his children as well, how could a man ignore them and show them no love? Only a cold hearted monster could, right? But one Mr. Thomas Durant already knew that he would be remembered in time as a snake but he didn't care, as long as he got everything he wanted.

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><p>As Lily lay asleep in her bed the last time she ever saw Mr. Bohannon kept on repeating in her head. She vividly and clearly saw him all ragged and distraught looking standing at the dance tent entrance, gazing at her and locking eyes with her as she twirled around effortlessly with Thomas. After a turn and a fake smile to Thomas she was pained to see that Bohannon was no longer there or even entering the tent at that matter. He had just vanished. The music kept playing and couples kept on dancing, life would continue on despite that sudden disappearing act of that rail town's best and most respected but troubled souled foreman.<p>

The fair blonde gasped slightly as her eyes fluttered opened, she lay still on her bed while trying to figure out why the rugged man was embedded in her dreams.

Eva lay on a blanket on the wooden floor of Miss Bell's tent feigning sleep for she was too worried about Elam to sleep. She couldn't help but worry, against her better judgment she loved the man and wanted a life with him. She cared for him so much that she often found herself day dreaming about a future with him. This task of waiting for him to return, staying with Lily to remain safe, was hard on her.

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><p>The Swede, all burnt with scars from a tar and feathering event, was doing his odd nightly ritual of scrubbing his rail car's floors clean while being in nothing but his birthday suit. The sadistic foreigner smiled grimly to himself. "Yes, my plan is working; Bohannon should be dead by end of the week." He darkly told the still night air in the room that was dimly lit by an oil lap.<p> 


	4. 3 Weeks Later's A Party

**Okay ya'll here's the new chapter. Read and review, sorry it took so long to update but I was busy. Oh, new poll on my page for this story so go vote. :)**

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><p><strong>3 Weeks Later's A Party<strong>

Eva just sighed as she pulled her hair into a low side ponytail, looking into the mirror in the tent that she shared with Elam, the love of her life. She smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror wearing the lilac dress that Lily had given her a couple months ago. It was Elam's favorite dress on her. She wanted to look nice since Lily was holding a small engagement party for her and Elam in the saloon tent. Eva sighed contently as she remembered Elam's proposal 3 weeks prior to this current moment in time.

*Begin Flashback*

"_Elam, you were gone for days; I was worried bout ya." Eva said as tears glistened in her eyes while Elam wrapped his arms around her; pulling her close to his chest while they stood right outside of the local dinning tent, the place where they spotted each other as he walked back into the dirty tent town._

"_Aw, Eva, I missed yous too." Elam kissed Eva on the forehead. "I was thinking when I were gone, maybe we should get hitched."_

_Eva pulled awa from Elam, resting her hand on his chest as her face contorted in a confused daze. "Elam, you ain't foolin' bout this now ain't ya?"_

"_No foolin', high time I done gone and mades yous honest 'n' took cares o' yous."_

_*End Flashback*_

"What yous thinkin's bouts, Eva?" Elam asked her, with a small smile on his face, as he walked into their tent.

Eva turned away from the mirror, looking at Elam while smiling and saying: "When you asked me to get hitched with you."

"Well, Miss Bell gots the tent ready for our party, time I escort yous there." Elam smiled as he linked his arm with Eva's, walking her out of their tent and making the way to the party.

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><p>The lanky man adjusted his burnt orange tie for about the tenth time, trying to ease his nerves and look his best. His long brunette hair was slicked back with his tan hat on top of his head, he wondered if she'd know it was a new hat or whether she'd care. He'd had his eye on that beautiful, curvy, blonde madam named Nell for a while now and he decided that today at Miss Eva and Mr. Elam's engagement party he would approach her, approach her for much more than a dollar's roll.<p>

"Mickey, ya look fine, stop worr'n bout ya tie." The sandy blonde, conniving, brother groaned out since he was tired of his brother playing with his damned tie.

Mickey shook his head and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Ain't worr'n, nerves is all, Sean."

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><p>Lily stood at the entrance of the dinning tent, kindly greeting guests as they piled in to celebrate the happy time in Elam and Eva's life. The fair maiden couldn't help but feel bad that Mr. Bohannon wasn't around, being Elam's friend she felt that he should've been there. She didn't know where he was and that bothered her, logically it shouldn't since she was widowed and with child but never the less it did. She couldn't help but want and wish for Bohannon to walk through that tent and flash his baby blues her way, to chuckle at her, to see a dimple with a slight smile.<p>

"Oh, welcome, please enjoy yourselves." Lily robotically but cheerfully told Joseph and Ruth as the pair walked into the tent arm in arm.

Oh how Lily was jealous of the couple at that moment in time. She wanted someone to link arms with, someone to laugh with, someone to get angry with, someone to talk with. She thought that she could've gotten that, maybe, with Bohannon in time; that they could've helped heal each other of loss and emotional wounds from grief but she was wrong. It pained her heart that when Elam returned he had no words for her from Bohannon.

*Begin Flashback*

_Lily smiled as she saw that Elam had returned to Eva, reuniting right outside the dinning tent. The blonde wildcat got up from her chair at her table since she was done eating and decided to go over to Elam. She just had to know if Cullen was found, if he was alright, if he got her message, if he cared. Cared, cared about what-her? Perhaps that's what she wanted to hear-to hear that Cullen missed her company, her pressence, her bright lady's aurora. _

_Elam saw Miss Lily Bell making her way towards him and he instantly knew why. "Miss Eva, luv, go back to our tent. I's gotta speaks to Miss Lily Bell's bout Mista Cullen's, alone."_

_Eva just nodded her head, understanding by the look on Elam's face what he had to say to the lovely lady from England wasn't going to be what she wanted to hear, and just walked back to the direction of their tent. Smiling weakly at Lily as she past her, knowing that her friend wasn't going to be getting the answers that she sought after. Cause now her rich former debutante friend was living in sewage, and when you lived in the sewage city of traveling tents known as Hell On Wheels instead of answers you sought for you recieved trials and torment instead._

_Lily walked right up to the freed colored man and gave him a small, friendly, smile."Elam, did you find Bohannon?"_

"_I's did." Elam nodded his head and answered simply._

"_And you told him what I said?" Lily bluntly asked, hoping that her message of advice to Bohannon was relayed._

_Elam sighed out, "Yessum."_

"_And?" Lily's eyes searched for an answer from Elam as they shined with hope. A hope that Bohannon had gentle words in response for her._

_"Elam knew what Miss Bell wanted to hear and sadly he wasn't going to be the one telling her those things. No, he was the middle man and the message he had to give was simply nothing. Cullen had no words for Lily, he did burried inside but he didn't unleash them. "Nothin', says he a lost cause nothin's changin' eitha." Elam answered the classy lady's question._

"_That's all he had to say, then, Elam?"_

"_That'd be it, Miss Bell."_

"_He truly is an ass…" Lily sighed, walking off into the direction of Durant's railcar in order to discuss maps and routes for the road._

_*End Flashback*_

"Oh, hello Mr. Gunderson." Lily faked a smile to the tall, lean, freakish man that was known to be Durant's head of security as he stood towering over her.

The reply she recieved was, "Good day, Missus Lil-y-Bell

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><p>The Swede walked into the party tent, not to enjoy himself but to try to recruit men to go out and hunt Bohannon since his plan of having Durant send out Elam to hunt down the rebel was a total flop. He knew that the people in the town didn't like him but he also knew that the people in the town would do anything for a buck, a buck plenty would they get for helping him bring down that blasted Bohannon.<p> 


	5. Something New

So I'm introducing some Original Characters (OCs) of mine in her during this chapter. Oooo lawdy….

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><p><strong>Something New<strong>

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><p>The smoke from the shack of a saloon was so thick as he entered that he could barely see. He wafted it away from his face with his hand and took in his soundings. The one horse mining town of Oro City, Colorado (a town that was being abandoned slowly but surely by the gold prospectors in order to head on over to Leadville, the newly discovered town that was hopping with gold in the veins) was hot, dusty, and a bit rowdy from men being aggravated by the lack of gold veins. He chuckled softly to himself, a rowdy town that was dying would surely be a good hide out for him, no one would search for him in a town that was dying off instead of booming.<p>

Cullen walked up to the bar, leaned and elbow against the wooden top while removing his black and dusty hat and setting it on the bar counter top. "Barkeep, bottle o' whiskey." He told the barkeeper, a tall man with golden hair down near the middle of his back and a face as good looking as a pitbull's.

"A'ight, here ye go." The barkeep said as he placed a bottle and shot glass right in front of the rugged man.

As Cullen stood at the bar downing drink after drink of the fiery amber liquid he heard a loud squeak of the salon shack's hinged doors sling open and shut abruptly. What he saw before him shocked him. He saw a woman with light caramel streaked wheat hued hair in a black hat, a white puffed short sleeved blouse, a black vest, and a black skirt complete with gun holster on her hip waltz into the joint with a tall clean shaven feller with dark hair to his chin in a grey suit and mustard yellow tie that looked to be juiced up on something, something that was much stronger then booze no doubt. The mysterious woman stood next to him but said nothing to him, instead calling out to the barkeep. "Cedric, gunna need 3 bottles of whiskey for that poker game me and Boone be having in a bit."

"Hell, sis, stop runnin' round like a wild Neanderthal and do what Pa sent you here to do. Watch after my ailing, troubled wife and the children while I run my here saloon."

"Lookie here Cedric, ain't my problem that you can't stop impregnating your wife every 5 seconds. Ain't my duty to watch your 10 brats, no wonder that woman's sick…she's expecting number 11. Hell, we both know that Pa, mighty Colonel Seaford, didn't send me here cause he gave a rat's ass bout your ailing Pennelope…no he sent me here cause he couldn't bare the realities of war, the prices that the ones at home had to pay!"

Suddenly the bar tender's face grew as red as Georgia clay and his voice was deep like thunder. "Hush, LeNore, don't talk bad bout Pa, he served our country well even though our side was the losing side!"

"Fine, I'll hush, but unlike you I don't glorify a man that turns his own daughter away for something that wasn't her damn fault but the fault of them Yankees!" The woman blared as she grabbed the 3 bottles of whiskey, storming off to the table her juiced up friend was at.

The outlaw had only been in Ora City for about maybe 3 or 4 minutes and he was already getting an eye full and an ear full by accidently and uncontrollably ease dropping on the barkeep and the barkeep's sister, who looked younger then the barkeep. Oh how this woman's hateful, cold, heart and attitude towards blue coats intrigued him plus the fact that the woman was sitting at a table playing poker and downing shots of whiskey.

'Oh what the hell, won't hurt to play a little poker.' Cullen told himself as he placed some money on the counter, grabbed his bottle and glass, and made his way over to the wooden table where the lady and the juiced up man were having a card game.

The woman's ears perked up as she heard the man pull up a seat to the table. She looked up at him, her velvet eyes glancing at his baby blues from behind her cards. "I'm LeNore, LeNore Seaford and this here is my doctor friend Boone Muttleigh. Have to wait til this hand's done to join in."

"Bohannon, Cullen Bohannon, no problem Ma'am." Cullen politely introduced himself as he sat down at the table, placing his whiskey and glass on top of the table.

He saw the doctor begin to sober up at the mention of his name and he saw that the woman smiled and place her cards on the table. "Why I'm honored to be graced by your presence Mr. Bohannon, the Yankee officer killer." She told him as she shook his hand in a quick greeting. "Oh, I think we'll become great friends." She said as her hand parted from his and she went to pick up her cards. "Just don't think about getting too friendly though, I ain't no two-bit whore, I was raised with morals."

"Eh, Ma'am, I never implied you were a two-bit whore." Cullen found himself telling this young lady with a raised brow.

LeNore stuck a cigar in her mouth; lighting it while addressing the wanted Yankee killer from the Hell On Wheels Union Pacific Railroad Camp with word of, "I know but I'm just informing you is all, knowledge never hurt anybody yet has it Mr.B?"

"No." The rustic man simply said as his mind wondered exactly how this woman with a strong Southern accent got to where she was both location and action wise.

Boone put his cards on the table and clicked his tongue, "Uh, fold, new game sweets."

"Boone, don't go calling me sweets you crazy morphine addict…" LeNore shook her head and rolled her eyes as she grabbed the deck of cards to deal for another round.

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><p>Lily was almost 4 months pregnant and she was starting to show. She had to have a couple of new dresses made by the new seamstress, ones that were bigger where the backs could be tied to fight and adjust to her growing belly. Lily in fact was at the seamstress with her dear friend Eva in order to pick up the dresses they had ordered for the dark haired woman's wedding which would be the upcoming Saturday.<p>

Eva had just put on her dress to try, in order to make sure the fit was just right, and she was beaming with joy as she looked at herself in the mirror. The dress was simple, white lace with a lavender sash complete with a sweetheart neckline and ruffled cap sleeves, but Eva loved it. Absolutely loved it. "Ain't it pretty, Miss Bell?" Eva turned to ask her friend, who was right behind her dressing into her own new gown in the shop, with a big bright smile.

The blonde just nodded her head telling her friend, "Yes, yes it is very flattering Eva and Elam will surely love it as well."

"Well, look at yourself, Miss Lily Bell, you lookin' mighty fine 'n' pretty too." Eva smiled at her friend who was in her new bridesmaid dress which was a dark purple dress with lavender stitch and piping along the hemlines including a dark purple tie sash with lavender scrolled designs on it.

Lily glanced at herself in the mirror, her hand falling upon her swelling belly, and she just sighed with fake enthusiasm, "Yes, it'll do for the wedding." Lily was lonely, she wanted somebody to talk to, she craved to have somebody to be her companion; since losing Robert she has been nothing but lonely and empty. She was glad that Eva had Elam but she was sad that she didn't have another half as they had. No, who she was feeling an attraction to would rather run around killing and drinking and being a cold hearted monster then to have a woman to care for. Lily shook her head, this time deciding for good to forget about that baby blue eyed man and to think only about her baby and choices best for it.

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><p>Micky walked down the muddy alleyway and toward's the known red light district. The main entrance to the whorehouse was open and the madam, Miss Nell, was sitting on a chair. Her chest was compressed in a navy corset while a powder blue skirt, stained with a bit of mud, covered her legs save for her black lace-up boots. "What can I do for you my dear?" Nell asked Mickey as he entered her business in a lime green suit with matching hat.<p>

Mickey took off his hat and nodded his head at her as a gentleman would to a lady. "Uh, uh, Nell, uh lass, would ye go to the wedd'n' wit' me?" He asked in a very long and quick stutter.

"Yes, Mickey, I'll go to my old girl Eva's wedding with ya." Nell answered the man whom she had grown a liking to ever since sharing a few dancing with him at Eva and Elam's engagement party.

"I-I-I'll get ye a fine new frock." Mickey told her with a huge grin plastered on his face.

"If so say so my dear…now got a dollar?" She smiled wide at him as her strawberry blonde tendrils hit her smiling cheeks.

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><p>The Swede grumbled as he wandered the mud-hole of a shit town doing his new duty, a demotion cause Durant was upset that he was not keeping things under control in the town and that men didn't care to listen to him anymore. Now, now, Thor Gunderson was sweeping filth from the streets. Filth which included feces and carcasses, animal and human both. 'Damn this job….' He thought to himself as he did his daily job of cleaning the streets.<p> 


	6. What A Wedding

**What A Wedding**

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><p><strong><strong>Okay got an update up. Ooo there's a twist in the end of this. Hope everyone likes it.

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><p>It was a lovely day for a wedding. The humidity was up but the day itself was a beauty. The sunlight cast a bright shimmering glow, much like gold, onto the grass in the distance behind the church tent. People were filling in the church tent, all kinds, for the special day. It wasn't every day that a freed man married a former tramp; it was considered a one of a kind day in the smelly mud hole camp town. The groom's side was overflowing with freed men while the bride's side was consisted of working girls and customers.<p>

The groom, one Elam Ferguson, was standing by the makeshift altar with his friend and best man Psalms next to him. He stared at all the people filling up the church tent for his wedding. He couldn't believe how many guests he had for his wedding, it made him feel good.

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><p>Eva was sitting in front of the mirror in Lily's tent as the blonde placed some lilac flowers amongst the fancy bun she had strung up for the raven haired bride. The silence was one of nerves and joy, what every expectant bride feels. Lily smiled as she finished pinning the flowers in her friend's hair. "I hope it's to your liking, Eva."<p>

Eva turned her head back and forth, glancing happily at her flower adorned hairdo. She turned around with a huge smile and gratefully thanked Lily, "Yes, I like it a lot Missus Bell."

Lily nodded, slightly smiling, and smoothed out her dress skirts. "We should get going to the church, Elam's waiting for you."

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><p>The ginger haired preacher's daughter began to play the wedding march on a hand organ while every person seated stood to their feet and turned to look at Eva. Psalms saw his friend beam with joy upon looking at his soon to be wife and Lily couldn't help but to smile at the site of a happy bride marching down the aisle to be with joined with her groom.<p>

Reverend Cole waved the couple to be wed closer to him as he smiled with a crazed and loony look. The tall frail minded man insisted on doing the ceremony even though Joseph had offered to in his place. The reverend held his small bible to his chest and lifted his hand up towards the heavens and then spoke out. "Today the Lord Almighty, our God, shall unite in a holy union this man and woman. Man and woman he made. In Genesis we are told that God had made woman from man's rib just for man so that he would have a companion, like the other creatures."

Ruth coughed and subtly whispered, "Father…please…their vows…"

Joseph just sighed and shook his head as he stood by Ruth, behind the reverend. He knew the man he admired so much and idolized was losing his mind and it was aggravating.

"Vows…vows…vows…" The crazy preacher repeated, in a failed attempt to remember the sacred wedding vows.

Thankfully Elam knew what to do. He took Eva's hand in hers and began to say his vows. "I, Elam Ferguson, take you Miss Eva's to be mine. Mine in sickness, health, rich or poor time." Elam felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Psalms hand outstreached with a simple gold ring in it. Elam took the ring from Psalms and slid it onto Eva's dainty third finger while Eva smiled and blinked away tears. "Your turn." Elam simply told Eva.

Eva took a deep breath to calm herself. "Elam Ferguson, I take ya as my husband. Sickness, health, rich, poor." Eva announced with a smile spread across her face. She was now Elam's and he hers.

"Vows." The reverend smiled, as everyone in attendance rolled their eyes. "Yes, God has blessed this union in his eyes. Go on and replenish his earth as man and wife should." Reverend Cole advised the new Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson, tapping them on the shoulder.

Joseph stepped forward, clearing his throat, and announced, "Now that Elam and Eva are married it's time we go to the party tent for food, cake, dancing, and drinks. All thanks to Miss Lily Bell for the arrangements."

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><p>The sun was just beginning to set. Hues of purple, red, orange, yellow, and pink filled the sky as the sun slowly descended into the plains. The sunset glow was like a shining light highlighting the dancing couples at the wedding party. Ruth, donned in a hunter green dress, swayed away with Joseph, fixed up in his traditional black suit and matching top hat. Mickey danced with his newfound lady friend, Nell, who he had purchased a nice teal dress for which actually matched his new tie that he paired with a grey suit. Other working girls danced with random men from town, hoping to get paid later that night perhaps. Lily sat at a table, her mind drifting to Cullen, while Eva and Elam danced and laughed like a pair of teen lovers instead of a grown couple. He made her happy, made her feel loved and she was grateful for that cause the lord knew she never had that before. She was so happy that nothing could take that away from her.<p>

At least that's what she thought until she saw the tall, thin, red skinned man with black satin hair in buckskin pants and a loose fitted shirt march into the tent with a look of jealousy and possession on his face. She closed her eyes and hoped against all hope he would just go away. Her hopes were shattered as everything went quiet while everyone stared at the uninvited guest as he spoke up in very hard tone. "Eva, my Sad Dove, see I find you in arms of another man. A man of color."


	7. Self Realization, Admitting & Confession

**Self Realization, Admitting & Confessions**

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><p>Okay pace is quickening a bit now... Read &amp; enjoy! :D<p>

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><p>The night air was a bit chilly to the bones but that wasn't stopping one Mr. Bohannon from sitting at a small saloon table with his new friend LeNore for some shots of whiskey and a good game of cards. The destroyed man could pick up that gun slinging young lady had been hardened during the days of war upon the South. He never asked about her experiences and she never brought it up. All they did in the dusty, small, smelly saloon was drink and play poker while having small talk which usually didn't amount to much or matter. This night was a bit different though, the young lady with the caramelized golden hair seemed much too quiet, perhaps a bit dead on the inside. Her eyes seemed empty, emptier than usual, and she was drinking more than usual too. Cullen, despite his roughness, seemed concerned about her even though he'd only known her for a few days.<p>

Cullen set his shot glass down with a clunk. He sighed, mostly to himself, and then broke the silence between him and his new young lady friend. "Something eating away at you, Miss?" He made his observation known to the young lady sitting across from him, smoking a cigar.

"Why?" Was all LeNore asked as she pulled her cigar rom her mouth and tipped some of it's ashes into the ash tray sitting between her and Bohannon.

"You seem upset is all."

"Maybe I seem upset cause I am upset."

"Hmm…" Cullen sighed, getting his answer with a dash of snark, he didn't know what else to say or do so he just poured himself another drink.

LeNore looked at Cullen, sighing, "Night air's growing colder, in a couple of months snow will fall, not very good conditions for a weak, small, sickly baby."

"So, you're concerned for a baby I take it?"

"Yes, it most likely won't survive the harsh conditions…maybe it'd be easier for me if it didn't…"

"I take it the baby was a product of war." Bohannon said even toned, no emotion evident in his words. His words were empty.

"Yes." LeNore spat out bitterly.

Bohannon's voice turned dark as he said what was looming between them in the air, the cause of the war produced child… "Yankees."

"Yes, damn Yankees destroyed my home in Georgia…right outside of Atlanta…took everything from me…left me with a burden too…Pa disowned me outta shame when he got home…I hate them!" LeNore poured out just like one would our whiskey from a bottle. Her words flowed with such bitterness, such sadness, as she told the quick version of her Yankee encountered events to former CSA Captian Bohannon, a man she sensed she could trust.

Cullen nodded his head, for he too knew how bad of a pain was flowing through Miss Seaford's veins. Cullen's dirty, calloused, hands poured himself a drink…liquid courage or what he was about to speak allowed with his friend. "The Yankees raped and strangled my wife…Mary…burnt the barn…my boy was hiding in it with my old mammy…Bethal…" Cullen let out a deep breath he didn't even know he was holding after telling about his slain family.

"I'm sorry, Bohannon; I feel your pain. I truly do." LeNore sympathetically told the brooding man she was sitting and drinking with. She meant it too, she was in pain herself over what she had encountered so she could relate to him. They, in her opinion, had both lost everything they loved to the Yankees.

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><p>Night was upon the town of tents, the moon was absent and the stars twinkled but did very little to light up the sky without its friend the moon for help. A pudgy man, dressed to the nines in a fancy tan and brown suit with matching hat, walked up to a certain tent. "Miss Bell, may I come in and have a word with you?" He asked as he stood at the tent's flap. With no answer he cleared his throat and tried again with a greeting, "Lily, I would like to speak with you about certain important matters, may I come in?" But once again the only answer received was the dead silence of the night…along with the rustling and bustling and rowdy cat calls from the local whorehouse down the way. Durant decided to go against ethics and just step into the tent. All to his surprise he was shocked to see that Lily Bell's tent was empty in the night. Night was not a good time for a lady, pregnant one to boot, to be out and about. Durant had wanted to speak to Lily and give her an offer on behalf of her condition (plus he was hoping to get her closer to him as well) but she had left her tent and wandered off somewhere.<p>

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><p>Eva lied in bed, next to her sleeping husband, and let everything that was said and done during the wedding interruption run through her mind.<p>

_Elam's hand instinctively went to his hip, for his gun, but his grip on it loosened as Eva placed her hand on his and whispered, "Don't, Elam, he won't do no harm."_

"_If you say, but how you know?" Elam dropped his hand to his side, softly looking and questioning Eva._

"_I know he won't cause he used to be my husband." Eva quietly said, shame in her eyes for they both know that she wasn't a wife of love but of necessity for the Indian man._

"_Your husband or your master?" Elem asked, hard as stone, as he glared at the red skin man._

_Eva just sighed deeply, "It weren't love."_

_Elam and Eva watched as the uninvited man walked up to them. They both knew that words were going to be exchanged._

_The native looked at Eva and Elam as he spat, "Calvary took you away so you find him, a color man to be with?"_

"_Raven Tree, I love Elam, please go and let us be. Both know we ain't got no love loss." Eva snapped; Elam could've been prouder of his woman for standing up to what he viewed to be as her former master._

_Before the Indian man could say anything Elam grabbed his gun and clicked off the safety, aiming it at the man. "You's better listen to her or I shoots you dead."_

"_I been looking everywhere, when I do find you it's like this?"_

"_Go, leave us be, I belong here now."_

"_Yes, stay here like the whore you are, leave family behind." The native barked right before he turned around on his heel and angrily marched out of the party tent. _

Eva sighed as she rested her hand on her husband's chest as he slept, feeling it rise up and down with every breath he took, while her gold wedding ring shined against his dark skin. She hoped that Raven Tree wouldn't bother them no more. She truly did love Elam, wanted to have some youngin's with him and one day a real house with some chickens and maybe a cow.

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><p>The air chilled her to the bone as she walked Westward in the dead of night. She knew it was foolish, a pregnant woman taking off in the middle of the night to find a man, but she also knew that she had to do it. She had to find Cullen, she longed for him and she tried to ignore it but it just wasn't going to go away. No, after witnessing the whirlwind of a wedding for the Fergusons she decided that she was going to track down Mr. Bohannon come hell or hot water. Lily was on a mission, a mission to find that rugged man Bohannon and to fulfill her longing urge for him.<p> 


	8. Thinking What A Silly Girl

**Alrighty chapter 8 is here. Chapter 9 will be on soon like I dunno how soon but soon. Yes this is obviously a HOW Alternate Universe.**

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><p><strong>Thinking What A Silly Girl<strong>

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><p>It had been nearly 3 days since Durant had seen Lily and he was beginning to grow worried. He had taken up a lustful liking to her and not hearing from her, not seeing her about town, put a very big dent in his plans. Anything could've happened to her and only God knew where she was at that moment in time. That's why the short, pudgy, man was pacing his railcar awaiting a reply from the man he sent for: Elam Ferguson. He knew that if anyone could track down Lily it would be Elam Ferguson but as it would be Mr. Ferguson had taken a leave of absence to honeymoon in St. Louis with his new bride, a former whore known only as Eva. Durant had sent a Western Union to his personal employee, but that was hours ago and he still hadn't gotten a reply. He knew that the hotel desk clerk must've given Ferguson the urgent message by now, he was wondering what the hold up for the reply was.<p>

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><p>"Elam Ferguson, you spoil me with all these purdy new frocks and hats." Eva shook her head as she and her husband walked down the street, ignoring peoples stares and whispers, towards the hotel they were staying at all the while Elam carried many parcels with him.<p>

Elam just cracked a smile and chuckled to his wife, "Supposed to, Eva."

Elam liked spoiling Eva and himself with new imported French fashions since he had the money to do so. By working directly for Durant he made good money, his wallet and coin purse was always full. He felt proud that he had worked his way up in the world, the world where he knew only the white man got all the breaks, and had become something. He was also proud that he had taken Eva out of a dead-end lifestyle and made her an honest woman since he loved her very much. More so than the wife and child that his owner/master/father had sold from right under him at the plantation back in Georgia…but no he wasn't going to dwell on the past, that was a story that Eva didn't know about and one he wasn't fond on sharing either…

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><p>When Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson reached their hotel the desk clerk was anxiously awaiting their return, waving a Western Union frantically in his hand. "Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Ferguson, Sir, you got a urgent Western Union from the Thomas 'Doc' Durant!" The desk clerk announced in a rushed shout.<p>

"Durant's wiring you on our honeymoon?" Eva asked Elam with a puzzled look.

"Mhm." Elam sighed while the desk clerk left his post at the desk and ran up to them, delivering the message.

Elam quickly read the message and then just chuckled and shook his head. His wife, Eva, just gave him a questioning look. "Miss Lily Bell gone run off, boss man want her found. Three day she missin' for. Hell, she be fine once she find Mr. Cullen." Elam answered his wife's silent question as he started to guide her upstairs to their room.

"You think she went to find him?"

"Mhm, ya knows she like him…may he likes her too's…who knows…we honeymooning."

"Maybe we should get back, you look for her." Eva told her husband as they reached their room and stepped inside.

"Nah, Cullen ain't far off…last I saw him he was maybe 70 mile away…she be fine Eva's." Elam told Eva as he placed their packages on a table near the door. He had decided that Cullen could deal with her cause he was going to enjoy his honeymoon.

Little did Elam know that Cullen was nowhere near Nebraska anymore.

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><p>The blonde had traveled for 3 days, resting in tree lines and picking berries for food, until she ran into a wagon train of pioneers that were headed to the Dakotas Territory. One family had offered her passage with them for a few coins since Lily was in no condition of wandering the wilderness alone. A man in his mid-40's helped Lily into the back of the covered wagon where his wife and children were.<p>

"What's a lovely young lady in your condition doing out here?" A woman in her 30's with red hair and a friendly smile asked while the wagon began to move again.

"Looking for a man. Cullen Bohannon, have you heard of him?"

"No, sorry, can't say that I have."

"Oh…"

"Is he the father?" The woman asked, curious to know.

Lily shook her head and answered, "No, no, my late husband…Robert."

"Ah…" Was all the readhead said as she tilted her head. The woman patted the heads of her 2 children who were sleeping. She thought that this blonde was foolish for running after a man who wasn't even her baby's father, especially when widowed. "I'm Marge, Marge McGee."

"Lily Bell, but plase call me Lily and thank you for the passage but I doubt I'll make the trip to Dakota Territory, I have to find Cullen."

"Yes, I understand…" Marge gave Lily a fake smile, still thinking the young lady was acting a bit foolish.

Lily just sighed to herself and thought about how she could find Cullen. Maybe when they got to a trading post or a small settlement she could ask if anyone had seen him. His name wasn't very common; surely someone would've remembered crossing his path.


	9. My Darling Clementine

**Was going to make this into one big chapter but decided to split it. So this is Ch.9 Part 1. It's heavy so be warned. I plan on having the next chapter up in a day or so.**

**My Darling Clementine**

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><p>It'd been about a week since the weakling baby had been sick; a week since its mother had been able to drink and play poker with her friends. The small baby coughed and cried non-stop, having gotten sick a week prior due to the breeze and drop of temperatures in the desert night. The small baby lied in its wooden cradle, wrapped in a blanket, hacking and spitting up whatever it had managed to eat an hour or so before. Its mother awoke from the sound of a sick baby. The mother pushed her caramel wheat hair away from her face, sighed, and then got up from her bed and walked the short distance to where her baby was. "Clementine, still sick?" LeNore rhetorically asked the small baby as she picked her up. "You've spit up all your food; you're burning up." She told the child as she held her, feeling the heat radiating off of its skin.<p>

LeNore walked over to her bed and sat down on it, still holding the child, and grabbed a wet rag that was in a water bowl on the bedside table. "Shh." LeNore told the baby as she wiped it down, hoping to cool down its fever.

LeNore, truthfully, hadn't wanted this baby girl especially since it was made in the worst possible way but she had natural motherly instincts that won out. She cared for the child, and when she wanted time to herself and time to visit with her friends, Boone and Cullen, she had one of her older nieces or nephews watch the baby. Her child had never latched on naturally to nurse so ever since it had been born it had been fed cow's milk from a bottle contraption that Dr. Boone had managed to get his hands on. The child's state of health always had LeNore in a type of emotional turmoil.

Baby Clementine continued to cry as its mother held her and did everything possible to soothe her. Lenore placed the baby on her chest and got up from the bed, pacing around the floor trying to soothe the baby into a sleep. LeNore tried to get the baby to stop crying, patted it's back, held it tighter, and soon enough the baby left out a lone muffled cry before it went silent. A deadly silence.

When LeNore placed the baby into its cradle she noticed that the baby was going cold, its eyes were hazed-like, that the baby's lips were turning blue. She placed a hand by the baby's mouth and felt no breath. Her heart pounded quickly as she realized her baby was dead.

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><p>LeNore was in a state of shock whenever she walked into her brother's shack of a bar with a lavender dressing rob on, hiding her white lacey nightgown. She quickly scanned the bar and found what she was looking for, or actually who she was looking for. Mr. Bohannon. He was alone, drinking, since no doubt Boone had taken off to his room, located in the bar's second floor, to get some more of his prized morphine which he was addicted too.<p>

She quickly rushed over to Bohannon's side. "I need your help." She told him, placing a hand on his arm to gain his attention.

He just looked at her, puzzlement shown in his grey-blue eyes.

"Please, come with me, it's urgent." She begged, pulling him up from his seat by the arms.

With that plea Cullen got up silently and let himself get dragged out of the bar by LeNore. He found himself being dragged to a large wooden house and found himself being drug into room dimly lit with a baby cradle sitting in the corner.

LeNore pointed towards the corner, eyes frantically going between Cullen's gaze and the object in the corner, while explaining the reason she had brought him into her quarters with a slight tremble to her voice."It's Clementine, she was coughing and crying so I picked her up to quiet her, I held her up against me and now-now-now she's…I fear she's dead…"

Cullen walked over to the cadle and inspected the small baby. The sight of the small baby, born months too soon as he understood from the mother, made him want to crack. A child gone too soon was a shame, a tragic event even if it was sick and it was for the best. He sadly sighed and turned to face LeNore. "I'll cut the boards and bury her one the wake's over. Ready her; dress her in something nice to rest in."

LeNore walked over to the cradle, where Bohannon was nearby, and gave him a small smile while lightly tapping him on the shoulder in a friendly and grateful guesture. "Thank you, I-I didn't know what to do. You're a good friend."

Cullen just nodded his head and let out a simple, "Yea…" before making his exit from the room.

* * *

><p>Once the shining dawn broke Cullen helped LeNore place baby Clementine, dressed in a simple white dress with eyelet lace border, into the pine box that he had nicely lined with a small blanket. Together they placed the tiny wooden casket onto a table in the so called parlor of the double storied wooden house. The residents of the house, being LeNore's sister-in-law, nieces, and nephews, went about their business as if nothing had happened and there was no wake being held in the house. A few people, mostly bar patrons, a couple whores, and some miners with their familes, came to show support and respect for LeNore's loss of baby Clementine.<p>

Cullen had remained by Lenore's side, telling himself she needed him during her hard tragic time. He had lost a child; he felt that they shared a fellow pain and that she would need him to guide her throughout that pain.


	10. Dueling Fiddles

**Okay this has a T rated love scene…okay when I say love scene I mean whoopie! Cullen's getting some with the OC LeNore so Cullily fans be warn, but don't worry Lily get with Cullen all in good timing…Well it's rated T for Teen, I'm used to writing more eh detailed ones but hopefully this T rated-detailed one is good. Had to use some metaphors…**

**Dueling Fiddles**

* * *

><p>After the wake for baby Clementine was finished Cullen buried her behind the house by a nice flower bed all the while making LeNore stay inside her brother's house, sitting on the sofa in the 'parlor' room. He felt pain while digging the hole, the pain of burying his own family was rising up in him like bile does from the stomach and he had no control over it. Cullen never thought he's be burying another child much less a friend's child. He looked up at the sky, clear light blue with fluffy clouds, and then mustered out: "God, if you're up there listening to me make sure this lil babe is watched for by my Mary and son Martin." Cullen then finished the burial properly by placing the small wodden cross in the freshly turned soil to mark the grave. The carving on the cross simply read 'Clementine Seaford 1865, 6 months of age'.<p>

After the grave was completed with the cross marker, Cullen walked into the light wooden house and made his way into the pretend parlor that looked more like a dreary windowless wooden box with an old sofa and a sitting table. His boots made a shuffling sound as he walked over to the burgundy sofa. "I can take you to see it now, I laid her to rest by the garden…she'll always have flowers nearby…"

"Thank you, Cullen." LeNore simply said as she stood up and straightened out the wrinkles in her skirts.

Cullen placed a hand on the small of LeNore's back and guided her out of the poor excuse of a parlor and outside. The wind began to roar while the Southern pair walked into the backyard. The grass swayed back and forth and the flowers were slowly starting to shrink and lose their blooms. Cullen led LeNore to the small grave. He pulled a small pocket bible from his vest pocket and started to slip through the pages, looking for something that he had tabbed earlier. Once he found the page he was looking for he read aloud: "The LORD is my shepherd,I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." When he finished the 23rd Psalm he closed the bible and put it back into his vest pocket. He looked at LeNore, who was just looking blankly at the fresh grave. He sighed to himself and gently placed a hand on the small of LeNore's back. "Come, time to go back inside."

LeNore just nodded and once again let Cullen lead her.

* * *

><p>The days after the funeral weren't easy at all for anybody in the Seaford house. LeNore felt guilty for Clementine's death and Cullen didn't want to leave her alone with her grief so he had taken up sleeping in the parlor instead of in the room he cheaply rented from LeNore's brother Cedric. He didn't know why but he felt like she needed him to help her through everything. Now Cedric and his bedridden &amp; pregnant wife Penelope along with the oldest of their 10 children could sadly care less about LeNore. It wasn't like they had really wanted to have her with them, she cost money to take care of; money they didn't have, and the only reason why she was with them was because her father sent her away cause he was ashamed of her having a Yankee bastard. Boone the doctor came to visit a few times but he was mostly too busy getting hyped up on his special friend liquid morphine.<p>

* * *

><p>One night LeNore didn't come down for dinner and unlike her family Cullen was a bit worried. He didn't want her to be locking herself in her room and starving herself out of grief. He knew all too well the side-effects of grief and the crazy actions that are sometimes done out of it. Cullen decided that he would take a plate of poorly prepared pork and greens up to LeNore. He gently knocked on the door while saying, "LeNore, it's me, brought you some food."<p>

Click was the sound that was simply heard before the creaking of the door revealing LeNore in her lavender dressing gown with her caramel gold hair in a haphazard bun. "Come in." She told him as she walked to her bed, knowing that he would follow her and try to get her to eat the food that her 12 year old niece Betsy made.

As LeNore sat on her bed, causing it to squeak a bit, Cullen shut the door and walked over to the bedside table where he placed the plate of food. "I brought it in case you were hungry…"

"Thank you." LeNore sighed, quickly looking at the food. With another long sigh LeNore confessed, "You know, Cullen, my life wasn't always so depressing." She felt the bed next to her sink and knew that Cullen had taken a seat next to her. She looked over at him and he nodded to her, silently giving her the go ahead to speak whatever was weighing on her chest. "I was happy once, had a family, and a beau too." LeNore laughed a bit to herself as she shook her head. "War came and Preston went to fight, said it'd be over in a few weeks and we'd be married soon after. Well it didn't last a few weeks it lasted a few years."

"What happened to him?" Cullen asked hesitantly.

"Gettysburg…shot to the head…"

Cullen shook his head while sighing, "Yea…I was there…bloody battle…real bloody battle…lasted for days…my friend Doc could barely stay awake he had to saw so many of the men…I had to dig out bullets and bandage men…then I had to listen to Lee hand me my orders…so many men are buried in a field there…worst fighting I ever witnessed…like fish in a bloody barrel."

LeNore sighed and then proceeded to share her horrid experience the day that Sherman's March affected her, the day that her whole life was forever changed. "Then as if that wasn't enough Sherman and his Yanks marched throughout the South killing, raping, looting, and burning anything they possibly could down along with destroying crops and slaughtering livestock…I remember when they came…we thought that the fighting would only be in Atlanta since that was where the warehouses and valuables were but we were wrong…my small town outside of Atlanta was raided…my little brother was killed for trying to drag a Yankee off of me...my fiance's son, who I was in charge of after his father's death, was tied to a tree and shot cause he didn't want to leave my side and the Yankees wanted to use me as their personal plaything…"

"LeNore, I'm so sorry. Sherman should've never let his men do that; he broke the morals and rules of war."

"I will never forget what one of them said to me…it scared the shit out of me..."

"Why, what did he say to you?" Culled asked curiously, knowing that if it scared her it must've been something crazy.

LeNore shuddered as she recited the quote from the back of her memory, "He said 'You're a pretty thing. I think after this war's over I'm gunna find you and make you my wife.'."

"Damn…did he say that before or after he-"

"He said it while he was doing it…he was tall with an accent and I remember he had sergeant stripes on his sleeve."

"By God…" Culled whispered to himself. His mind went a mile a minute; it couldn't be the same sergeant could it? "Was he Clementine's father or…?"

"I honestly don't know who it was…she's the reason why I got sent here too, my father came back angry that our side lost and when he saw my condition and learnt how it happened he practically disowned me…" LeNore explained to Cullen as tears slowly ran down her rose hued cheeks. "I bet Cedric Western Union'd my father bout Clementine…bet he's happy…"

Cullen's heart began to feel heavy as he took in everything he had just heard LeNore say about being booted out the door for something she had no control over. He knew she was bothered and for some reason he wanted to comfort her. Maybe it was cause hearing her story of sorrow made his mind drift to the day he returned home and found his beloved Mary and young son gone. Cullen wrapped his strong arms around LeNore and brought her into a hug. He told her, softly, "Hey, you did the best you could in a bad situation. You were a good mother; she was your baby, no shame in that."

LeNore just nodded her head against Cullen's chest. When she lifted her head to look into his eyes her turquoise orbs locked with his stormy ones, they started to stare a smoldering gaze at each other. Both of them felt the heat of the moment. Neither one thought a second more about what to do, they left their instincts take over. Her head titled up and his tilted down, his facial hair hidden lips quickly crashed into her soft pink ones. It was not a sweet kiss but a hungry kiss, one where they bit and pulled at one another's lips rapidly with their teeth. Her petite hands snaked their way into his hair while his large calloused ones found their way to her waist where the tie to her lavender dressing gown was.

They broke away quickly for air after he had untied her dressing gown and pushed it off of her, revealing her in a white slip nightgown. He quickly removed his gun belt and laid it on the bedside table all the while she simply stroked his hair, she couldn't help it; she liked his long, soft, wild dark hair with the silver strays, but once the gun holster clanked on the table the lip locking continued. Cullen's kisses were not tender or soft at all but were raw and hungry, his tongue forcefully asked for permission to deepen the kiss by sweeping back and force urgently along LeNore's bottom lip. LeNore let her mouth open and allowed Cullen's tongue to slip in, causing their tongues to duel and dance while her hands quickly worked the buttons of his vest, pushing it down and off his broad shoulders once the buttons were loosened. As she pushed down his suspenders he let her hair out of the bun it was in, running his fingers through it and letting it cascade down her back.

He nipped and nibbled at her neck and shoulders as she unbuttoned and shoved off his shirt. He stopped his assault on her neck and shoulders on to quickly take off his long-john shirt, revealing his sculptured and chiseled chest. Her eyes widen at how flawless his chest was and then she quickly latched her mouth onto his neck, biting and sucking and kissing. Cullen closed his eyes and moaned as he felt LeNore's bites and kisses go from his neck to his shoulders to his chest. As she fluttered kisses on his chest her hands quickly found the button on his pants, she unbuttoned them but then was suddenly pushed away by him. At first she was confused until he stood up and yanked her off the bed causing her to stand in front of him, then she knew the kisses were over and now it was time to take the plunge into the deep end of the river.

He took the hem of her nightgown in his hands and quickly pulled it over her head, he kissed her and gently pushed her to sit down on the bed while he pulled down his pants and long-john pants; then he sat on the bed and fully removed them along with his boots and socks.

They were both sitting on the bed in all of their glory next to each other. For some reason beyond her comprehension LeNore's heart was pounding out of her chest and Cullen didn't know why but he felt brazen, unlike the shy feeling he had felt the first time he had bedded his late wife Mary as a younger man. With his lips latching onto hers he pushed her down onto the bed and got lost within her. Their movements were like those of a pair of dueling fiddles: fast, hard, full of energy, but angelic and beautiful also. Her toes curled and her back arched like a bow, he kept on hand on the bed's headboard while the other he snaked around her bow-like bent back. Soon enough he had fallen on his back and taken her with him, letting her set the pace of their dueling intimate dance. Whenever her head fell onto his chest, coving him with her golden locks, he sat them up and grabbed her face with a hand with while the other balanced her back and he captured her lips in a fiery kiss. He then placed her back how they started and brought her over the edge of carnal bliss with him.

LeNore was shocked when Cullen didn't just roll out of bed and leave but instead grabbed the blanket and covered them up, lying next to her and wrapping an arm around her while letting her rest her head on his chest.

They laid together in silence for a while until Cullen broke it. "Give me time and I'll give you time…we can learn to live pain free lives…"

LeNore truly wasn't expecting Cullen to propose that they give each other time to learn how to live painless lives together. She didn't know how to react. It was one minute she was literally crying on his shoulder and the next she was nipping on his shoulder and resting on it. All LeNore could do was smile and say, "Okay.", for she didn't know what else to do.

* * *

><p>While LeNore and Cullen were waking up in each other's arms as the dawn's early light burst through the window in the small mining town of Oro City, Colorado, out on the desolated plains in a nameless part of Nebraska a blonde none other than Lily was asking fur trappers, that her and the family she was traveling with were trading with, if they had seen or heard of where her desired man one Mr. Cullen Bohannon was. Little did she know the object of her desires had found himself in the arms of another woman, another blonde, but a blonde that came with more sorrows then her.<p> 


	11. You Can't Hear Me Out

**You Can't Hear Me Out**

* * *

><p>He stood in the gold and red scrolled wallpapered rail car in front of his boss' desk, smoking a cigar with a huge 'I don't give a damn' grin plastered on his face. He was decked out in a new tan top hat and wore a sharp smokey-hued suit and a tie that was striped tan, smokey, and a light shade with a light blue shirt. He had a new pocket watch, complete with a picture of his new wife inside. He was decked out and didn't care a lick about what his boss had to say about his little 'obsession'.<p>

The pudgy man in his signature black suit and red vest scrunched up his nose in disgust. "Mr. Ferguson, have a seat, please inform me why you ignored my Western Unions for 2 weeks straight?!"

"I was havin' me my honeymoon with Miss Eva's, my wife." Elam answered as he plopped down in the overstuffed chair by the mahogany wood desk.

"Honeymoon! Hell, I needed you to come back here and find Lily Bell! Didn't you read anything I sent you? She's disappeared, you fool!"

Elam curled his lip and nonchalantly said, "I ain't no fool, you's a fool."

"What, you dare call me a fool?" Durant's brow raised, his anger building up.

"Yep, cause if you can't figure out where she went and who she with you are a fool."

"What are you talking about, Mr. Ferguson?"

"Bohannon, Lily like him and went to find him." Mr. Ferguson told Mr. Durant, shaking his and rolling his eyes at how simple the answer was that his boss was too stupid to figure it out.

Durant's eyes grew wide as he gasped out, "You really think so?"

"Yea…didn't you ever see how she look at him 'fore he gone and runned off? She like him, she gone, not my problem."

"It is your problem, I want you to find her and bring her back!" The chubby curly ginger haired man screamed as he pointed an angry finger towards Elam.

The dark skinned man smiled. "No."

"No?" The rich railroad baron's face had paled, he was going into a state of shock. He couldn't believe he was told 'no' and by a freed black man to boot.

"You heard me, no, I ain't your slave. I's a hired gun, security head since Swede ain't nomore. Ain't no lady fetcher." Elam walked out of the railroad baron's railcar knowing full well that he had won the argument. The sun shined brightly, it's warmth pounded on his skin, and even though fall was fastly coming he knew that he had finally found his place. He knew that he was as strong as the rays of sunbeams whenever he told off Durant and left him speechless.

* * *

><p>Lightly gingered hair gently began to fall out of its loosened bun, a hand gently swiped some strays from her brow, as she had her head buried in a bible reading and praying for a freedom from her father's drunken grasp and also praying for Joseph's soul. Recently he had to be bitter against God cause of what was happening to people in the scummy town. People were getting sick and dying of dysentery and typholiod, turning the church tent into a hospital. Ruth still shuttered as his words kept replaying in her mind, "God does not care, you're father's right, he hears but cannot do anything to save us."<p>

Ruth knew that her father was a sympathizer for the Indians and that Joseph was missing his native culture, she had heard them talking earlier in the tent when they didn't think she was around. She heard them talking about how the whiteman would fight the Indians, kill them, and how they had to leave the foul city to protect and save the idians.

Ruth didn't want to leave, she was praying constantly for either her father and Joseph to come to their senses.

Ruth had just shut her bible whenever she heard footsteps enter the tent; she didn't need to turn around to know it was her lover Joseph.

She heard his voice smoothly speak, "Ruth, father's decided it's time to leave this place. It's no good anymore, only evil will reside."

She looked up into his dark brown eyes and boldly but almost in a whisper told him, "No, Joseph, I won't leave the church or my home."

"This is not your home and the church is nothing but a tent, an empty tent, that people come to to feel better but it holds no real spiritual power. God hasn't healed anyone, not like medicine men can back with my people."

"How dare you talk of blasphemy Joseph?" She asked with a shocked look on her face. She was a religious girl, believing in the church's purpose, and the thought of Joseph speaking treason against God was a nightmare.

Joseph only shook his head and sighed. "I speak the truth, Ruth. Your father says we're leaving right away, we need to pack." He explained, hoping that she'd do what him and father wanted…which was to pack and leave with them for the Indian tribe.

"I will not go, Joseph. You go and take father with you but I will not go."

"But, Ruth, I love you and want to marry you? Why won't you go?"

"We aren't meant to be, Joseph; we're from two very different worlds. Worlds that can never fully meet."

With that Miss Ruth got up from her chair and walked out of the room, away from Joseph, away from her relationship, away from what was her life.

Joseph stood and watched as Ruth had left him, telling him in so many words that they were over, that she needed religion like a crutch…

* * *

><p>The whore house was busy, men roaming in and out in rapid speed. While the girls were working the madam of the joint was sitting on her bed, next to her man, brushing her hair while he laid under the blankets. The madam's man scooted near her and used her hand to tilt her face so that her gaze was upon his eyes. "Nell, my sweet lass, why don't ye take a day off?" He asked her with his charming smile.<p>

"I don't work I don't eat, Mick." She grumbled as she pulled away from him, tossing the brush aside on a table near her bed.

"Nell, ye my lady now, I take good care of ye, can afford a day off." Mickey told his sweet working girl as he grabbed her arm, making her stay sitting and stopping her from getting up.

"Fine, but only since you said you'd buy my food." Nell told Micky as she slapped in on the cheek in a playful manner.

"Yes, now let's go back to bed."

"Mickey, you are a bad one."

"Yes, now let the twins out." Mickey chuckled as he quickly began to step out of his fancy loafer shoes.

"Sure do know how to charm a lady…" Nell rolled her eyes sarcastically.

All in all Nell seemed a bit off and cold towards Mickey sometimes but that was just her way. She was a very forward businesswoman being a madam of a brothel. Mickey wasn't a smooth talker at all, he was more of a jokester and didn't have a very good business mind but he had a good heart. A good heart was all that mattered, especially to a woman like Nell who'd never known a good hearted man in her life.

* * *

><p>Sean walked around town gloating, proud that he was promoted by Durant himself to be the realtor of land rentals and sales in Hell On Wheels. Sean couldn't be happier; he was living his dream of getting rich. While his fine shoes splished and splashed in the mud as he walked around the town surveying the lots he was now responsible for he noticed the young and fair beauty Miss Ruth walking about with her eyes glued to her steps in the mud. Without thinking Sean rushed over to her side asking politely with a tip of his hat, "Is all well with ye Miss Ruth? Walkin' alone out here ain't safe for a one as fair as ye."<p>

"Thank you; I'm fine Mr. McGinnes." Ruth fakely smiled at Sean, trying to keep her head down so that her tear stained cheeks would stay out of sight under her burgundy and white laced bonnet.

"Well, would ye like escorted back to the church? I be glad to." Sean asked, having noticed the tears on Ruth's cheeks. Thinking that maybe he could get her to open up to him on the walk to the church. Even though he was a catholic and she a protestant he sill thought of her as pretty.

"Um, yes, why thank you…" Ruth put on a smile, another faked one, and began to walk next to Mr. McGinnes, the shady man with ginger hair and a bowler hat.

* * *

><p>She held her small protruding stomach as the wagon she was sitting in rocked back and forth. She felt a bit sick, and she felt sad that nobody she had talked with while the wagon train made stops had heard or seen Cullen. She sighed to herself as she stared at the white canvas covering of the wagon. She saw the children riding in the wagon playing a card game with their mother. She was asked to join their game a few times but she politely objected. The blonde's fire was dwindling out, she wanted to find that rugged ex-soldier and farmer so that he could light it back up again. Her chest hurt and ached for him, she desperately needed him and missed his presence. That was the whole reason for her being out in the middle of nowhere riding on a wagon while pregnant with her late husband's child, to find Cullen.<p>

* * *

><p>He brushed his golden hair off his shoulder and behind his ear while his eyes followed the rugged dark haired man walking from the entrance of the saloon to a table. He walked around from behind the wooden bar and made his way to the man sitting at the table, bringing a bottle with him. "We need to talk, Bohannon."<p>

"About, what, Cedric?" Cullen asked as he took the bottle from the man taking a seat infront of him.

"My sister." Was what the bartender simply said

Cullen took a big gulp of whiskey while managing to let out a sound that resembled a,"Hmm?"

Cedric leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest, looking directly into Cullen's grey-blue eyes. "I know what ya'll did, now I don't want that kind of thing going on in my house…unless you want to pay her then of course by all means go ahead."

"What?" Cullen asked, not believing that this man in front of him was trying to pimp out his sister. "But, your sister's not a whore, she's a decent lady." Cullen said before taking another gulp of amber alcohol.

"Hey, I got a big family to take care of; I can't be supporting my sister. Especially now that she's rompin' around with you."

"You're getting' out of line now." Cullen growled as he placed the bottle labled 'Corn Likker' onto the round wooden table.

Angry, the golden haired bartender slammed a fist down on the table, making the bottle of cheap booze slosh. "Hey, you pay for it, I ain't running no freebie love makin' house."

Cullen just shook his head. "I ain't paying for what I can get for free."

"Well, then she ain't living with me no more; ain't supportin' no more can do that. She's all yours now; you're in charge of her." Cedric told Cullen right before he left the table and returned to his work spot behind the bar counter.

Cullen had gotten up from the table he was at whenever he saw LeNore walk in. He saw Cedric's cold eyes giving a disapproving look at LeNore. LeNore just shrugged off her brother's odd look and walked over to the table that Cullen was leaving. The pair met in the middle of the bar, between the bar counter and the table once occupied by Cullen. Before LeNore could say a greeting to Cullen he just simply took her arm in his and quickly escorted her out of the bar.

Cullen knew that he was going to have to find a place for him and LeNore and figure out how to make his money stretch for their living arrangement since the bartender had given her care to him since he had refused to degrade the caramel blonde by paying for the liaison they had and for any future ones.


	12. Playing House & Robin Hood

**Playing House & Robin Hood**

* * *

><p><em>The train ride from Texas to Mississippi was long and exhausting. The pair was glad when it was over. He didn't really want to be back here but he had to come back cause he had a house here, something he needed to pay a high tax for, something that he could maybe live in again with this young woman he had suddenly found himself paired with in the last week.<em>

_She just simply smiled weakly at him as he grabbed their bags and led them to where rented coaches and carriages would be available for use. She knew that this had to have been hard for him, hell she had told him that he didn't need to bring her back to where he had so many memories (both good and bad) but he insisted on it. Insisted that he had to go back to pay taxes and that maybe they could work the land and make something of it._

_Everything was fine until they reached the house, then the horrors of how ruthless and cold people could be hit. In front of the porch was a pair of graves unearthed and a pair of cross markers slanted and crooked. She was sickened by the evil that possessed a person to dig up the graves of a woman and young child. She felt horrible whenever he ran over to the graves, pale and shaken, dropping to his knees and cursing humanity for disturbing the peaceful rest of his family. _

_She walked over to his side and knelt down beside him, saying, "I'll help you redo their burials if you want, Cullen."_

_He only shook his head in protest, "No, it's for me alone to do, please go inside and tidy up a bit. Enough so we'll be comfortable for a few days, after the paying of the taxes we're going back to Oro City."_

"_Okay." Was all she said before getting up and going to the house to sweep the broken glass from the floor and to make it livable for a few days' time._

* * *

><p><em>They just shoveled out nearly $400 for taxes, just about all the money that they had. He was shocked that the Yanks had raised the taxes so high on his old farm and was now a bit worried about how he was going to acquire some money to get them back to Colorado let alone survive with. As they walked down the street together, headed to the local market to buy a few (cheap) items for dinner that night he saw his old friend Doc Whitehead.<em>

_Doc was a man that had grey hair and a gentle disposition; he was very smart and had a sense of humor. He had known Cullen since he was a child, having been friends with Cullen's father and the town doctor, he watched him grow from a rowdy boy to a rebellious man. _

_Doc smiled and stopped his young friend, who was in the company of a pretty young lady. "Cullen, good to see you my friend, I heard what happened. I'm very sorry. Seems like things are looking up for you then?"_

"_Thank you, Doc. Good to see you too." Cullen politely replied to his friend, a man that he served in the war with. "Oh, and this here with me is Miss LeNore Seaford." Cullen told Doc. "LeNore, this is my friend I told you about, Doc Whitehead." Cullen told LeNore._

"_Oh, nice to meet you Miss LeNore." Doc gently shook LeNore hand in a greeting._

"_Same to you, Doc." LeNore smiled as the handshake ended._

_Doc looked at Cullen and asked kindly but curiously, "So, you've come back to settle?"_

"_Thought we would but we decided to head back to Colorado, only problem is taxes drained my wallet dry." Cullen honestly told his friend, mentor, and closet thing he would ever have to a father anymore._

"_Cullen, I know a way you can make money, some real easy and good money, but it ain't easy." Doc sighed, knowing full well what he was going to tell Cullen would change the man for wither better or worse._

"_Tell me, Doc, I'm listening." Cullen told his friend. He was curious about the money making advice and his ears were ready to listen. Any way to get some quick money would be worth to hear about and maybe give a try._

* * *

><p>Time had flown by so quickly over the Western Territories; nearly 3 months had passed and it was now late fall. The winds were howling every night and day, some days were blustery and some weren't. The temperatures dropped drastically in preparation for the nearing winter, long sleeves and coats were beginning to come into fashion. Leaves on trees were falling, falling upon the ground in lush colors of yellow, orange, red, and brown.<p>

Roosters crowed, a sign that dawn had broken through and that night was officially gone, while rays of light shined into windows during the morning. The caramel wheat blonde was up, preparing a quick breakfast, whenever the rugged man with dark but slightly graying shaggy hair and beard came out of their room dressed and ready to go.

"Cullen, you leaving for Nebraska today?" LeNore asked as she turned her head over her blue dress clad shoulder, looking at Cullen, while tending to some scrambled eggs.

"Yep, payroll train bringing in a bunch of Yankee bills; payout should be $200 each." Cullen answered as he walked by her and took a seat at their small wooden table.

"Be careful, last time you got shot in the shoulder; I don't need you dying on me then I'll be destitute." LeNore told him as she gave the scrambled eggs on last turn before tossing them on some plates.

"Destitute?" Cullen asked in a scoff, scrunching his nose and brows up. "LeNore, Sugar, you sure will be destitute if I don't get us that money." He chuckled as she placed a plate in front of him along with a mug. "Can fix up this ole shack better with it," he began to explain as he shoveled some eggs into his mouth, "buy more supplies, maybe even get some crops or livestock or something." He continued his explanation while chewing on eggs.

"Sure…just what you said the money would go for last time and the time before that and so on and so forth…" LeNore sighed as she sat down at the table with her own plate of food and mug of drink.

Cullen's nostrils flared, he had been insulted by LeNore's latest remark. He retorted with, "Hey, I had to buy our land and this place with that money. Had to buy us food and clothes, didn't have none left for nothing else."

"Fine, but maybe after this last job you can stop." LeNore told Cullen after taking a few bites of her eggs.

He just shot her a puzzled look while asking, "Why?"

"Why? Why, cause you could get hung by those damn Yankees that control everything; that's why!"

"No Yankee ever gunna get me." Cullen said as he shoveled the last of his eggs into his mouth.

"Just be careful, a'ight?" LeNore told Cullen before taking a sip from her mug.

Cullen took a large gulp from his cup before getting up from the table. "I will." He said as he pushed the chair back under the table. He went over to LeNore's side and placed his hands on her shoulder; leaned down and gave her a kiss before telling her, "I'll be back within 3 or 4 days, 5 the most."

She nodded her head and simple replied with, "I know."

He walked away from the table towards the door. Once he walked out the door he was determined to go meet up with his friend and his gang in order to get some quick and easy money.

* * *

><p>As Cullen road down the orange-golden dirt road his mind hovered on what LeNore told him about needing to quit robbing trains and banks. He knew why she was concerned about his safety while with Doc and the Hawkins Gang , if he were to die then she'd have to crawl back to her brother's or move their drugged up doctor friend Boone in with her. Now just the mere thought of LeNore ever having to be desperate enough and alone to latch onto Dr. Boone made him shudder a bit. Sure he was friends with the guy but the guy just was out of it in the head, he was addict to morphine for crying out loud.<p>

Cullen saw they early morning sun glow in the baby blue horizon as his horse galloped down a trail he led it to, a trail that would lead to another which would led to another which would eventually take him to the way of a hideout in Kansas that he had to meet up with his comrades at.

He wasn't a stupid man, he was indeed very intelligent, and he knew the risks he was taking but to him they were worth it. He's rather shove a gun to one of Durant's foolish railroad employees and steal the man's riches, payroll, and government money then be stuck working in a cold, dark, mine digging aimlessly and endlessly for gold or coal. Oh, he'd rather take his chances being shot at and jumping onto a moving train to rob it then to take his chances underground in an unstable man-made cave with a pick-ax in hand for a good 8-12 hours a day.

* * *

><p>LeNore cleaned up the dishes and then sat down to catch a breath. She didn't know why she was so tired lately or why everything seemed to bother her. She sighed as she shook her head and looked out the window. "Lord I hope he doesn't do anything stupid, like get himself shot in the head, since he can't be normal and work in the mines." She spoke allowed as she got up from the kitchen table. "Lord, what in Sam's Hill did you stick me with?" She asked a high power as she went to the bedroom to collect the laundry scattered on the floor in order to wash it.<p> 


	13. Town Of Durant

**Town Of Durant**

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><p>The Hell On Wheels camp had settled near Fort Kearny, Nebraska a good 3 months ago, the town had built up and stayed in order of Durant. Not only brown, runny, mud filled the city but now wooden sidewalks and buildings. The buildings being a red painted whorehouse along with a café, a butcher's, smithy's, a general store, a saloon, a clothing shop, and a rail office. People still lived in tents but they were bigger now and the land plots were bigger. Mr. Durant had his precious railcar that he still lived in while his security head Mr. Ferguson had built a house on his paid for land by the river for him and his wife.<p>

The town was rougher than ever since it was the biggest in size that it had ever been. More people had seemed to flock to the city. Even families, who seemed decent, were arriving to hell to live and work.

The town had been dubbed Durant, after the railroad baron in complete control.

* * *

><p>Mickey took his wet rag and washed the bar counter of the Starlight, which was now his very own saloon. He was proud of himself, for buying it from Carl after Carl had some problems with the freed men. The tall, funny, Irishman loved being the owner of the bar. He was friendly with all of his patrons and would even participate in some poker games with them. He turned his head and looked out the window, glancing at his blonde buxom beauty sweeping the outside porch of her red painted brothel. He was glad that she was just managing the place but wasn't working it no more, he was glad that she trusted him to car for her and that they had a room together in the brothel and that she had made him her partner.<p>

* * *

><p>Her ginger hair poked out from her new tan and green bonnet as she stood with her assistant pastor, unbelievably Sean, as they greeted the congregation as they arrived at the huge burlap tent in the middle of town. As Sean smiled and shook hands with his fellow Christians he noticed out of the corner of his eye his estranged brother standing in the window of his saloon.<p>

Since Sean had renounced his Catholic faith his brother had disowned him and went down the path of corn likker and whores. A path that Sean said he could not go down. Sean had even told Mr. Durant himself that he would only work as his realtor if he could have the Sabbath Holy Day off. Of course Durant had given him the day off.

Sean had changed his ways just cause of his friendship with Miss Ruth. She had brought a light into his life that he didn't even know was missing and it stirred something in him. He didn't care about money and riches anymore, didn't even care about likker or rolling with a paid for girl. No, all he cared about was being a man that Ruth and his Mum, whom Ruth Cole had reminded him of so much, would be proud of.

* * *

><p>She smiled as she cooked a simple dinner of stewed meet, gravy, and potatoes for her and her husband in their house. The house that he had spent a good 2 months building, with the help of his brother Psalms. She was content with her life, was content that Elam had taken her so high in life and that he had made them their very own home to stay warm in and grow a family in. She turned her head to the wall on the left to glance at the clock and saw that it was nearing 6; that her husband would be home for evening meal soon.<p>

She hummed to herself as she continued cooking. Her humming only stopped whenever her love Elam walked in the door. "Elam, how was workin' today?"

Elam took off his hat and placed it on the wall hook while saying, "'Notha payroll train gots robbed bout 40 mile o'here."

"Oh, no pay again?" Eva asked as she scooped some stew into bowls.

"Naw, Durant pay me but no pay for nobodies else." Elam explained as he made his way to the table, where glasses of buttermilk was already set out.

"Oh." She tattooed beauty simply said as she came to the table with the stew bowls.

Eva gave Elam a bowl and then sat down across from him with her own bowl. It was quiet for a bit while they ate. Until Elam broke the silence with a heavy sigh, "Durant want me to track the robbers."

"Why you, ain't 'cha security heres?" Eva's face showed much puzzlement.

Elam sighed again and explained, "Rumor says Bohannon's in the robbers gang. Conductor saw hims."

"You ain't gunna kill him is ya? He your friend."

"Naw, I ain't killings him, wouldn't be fittin'. 'Sides, he prolly robbing to care for Miss Lily's babe that comin's soon."

"You gunna go?" Eva asked as she looked her husband straight in the eyes.

"No." Elam said, strongly believing that it wasn't his place to find Bohannon. He knew that if the man wanted to be found he would, that if he wanted to live a criminal's life then he would and most likely had a reason to. Elam wasn't a dumb man, he knew the only reason why Durant wanted him to find Bohannon and that was to find Lily and bring her back to town.


	14. Past's Not Past

**Past's Is Not Past**

* * *

><p><strong>Okay all you Lily &amp; Cullily fans should be happy by the end of this...<strong>

* * *

><p>Her hand rested on her protruding stomach as her feet achingly walked towards some miners that the fur traders she had found herself with, after having abandoned the wagon train to Dakota Territory opting out to stay in Nebraska, were talking to. Her dress, that was once light blue gingham, was stained with mud and torn at the bottom. Her hair was fizzy and falling out of her bun, it was also badly knotted. Once she found herself in the presence of the miners and fur traders she immediately spoke up. "Excuse me, gentleman, have any of you seen a man named Mr. Cullen Bohannon? He's tall with long dark hair and a beard."<p>

"Not this again…" A trader dressed in bear furs gruffly sighed as he rolled his eyes at Lily.

"Yea, I've seen him." A miner, tall and lean like a bean pole with slick oily hair and beady black eyes, told the expecting blonde.

"You have, may I ask where?" Lily quickly asked with much excitement in her voice.

"It was in a small mining town in Colorado, bout a day or so's ride, me and my friends Bert and Josie saw him."

"Yea," Jose, a tan man with raven hair, spoke up, "He was in a saloon buying bottles o' Corn Likker, then he left. Thinks he got a room or some'in's."

"He's in Colorado then." Lily said after letting the information register in her mind.

Bert, a stout man with a large tan hat on his head, nodded. "Yep, Oro City if I remember right." The man told her.

"Oh, I'd be very thankful and grateful if you could take me to him. I've been searching for him for months now."

The 3 men looked at each other, all seeming to be thinking the same thing-that this woman needed to find Bohannon cause she needed looked after cause she was expecting. After a silent agreement was made between the men the leader, the tall man, spoke up. "We'll take you."

Lily gratefully smiled at the miners. "Thank you very much, Sir."

"Aw, it nothin', I'm Dan by the ways." The tall man simply said, not wanting to make a big deal out of anything.

"Well, then thank you Dan, I'm Lily." She once again gave out a proper thanks to the man.

* * *

><p>"Damn son-a-bitch!" Bohannon heard loudly from the chair next to him. He put down the paper he was reading and turned his head to see what was going on. He chuckled as he saw the site of LeNore placing her finger in her mouth while she still held the sewing needle in her other hand.<p>

"Ain't to graceful at mending, I see?" He asked her, gesturing to the shirt she was trying to repair.

LeNore took her sore finger out of her mouth and shook it at her companion. "No; if you didn't keep getting shot in the shoulders every damn time you do a job I wouldn't be having this mending problem!" LeNore quickly lashed out at Cullen, feeling agrrivated and tired she wasn't in the mood for his quick wit and sarcasm.

"A'ight, I don't mean no harm…just saying…" Cullen's voice drifted off as he picked his paper back up again.

"So, anything interesting in that paper you're reading?"

"Nope, just reports on the railroad going through foreman's like Grant went through Richmond."

"Oh, that bad?"

"Mhm, according to this article the current foreman was found stuck like a hog and hanging in front of the whorehouse with a printed sign 'round his neck saying 'Lady Killer' but it says that the head of security says that 'The man kills a whore, beats her to death, so he just gots what was comin'. Ain't my job to worries bout that.'."

"Oh, sounds like a lovely place to live." LeNore snickered, thinking that the town Cullen once inhabited sounded like it was a pool of psychopaths.

"Haha, yep it's a shithole…" Cullen chuckled, turning the page of his paper.

"You were the foreman there before you got a bounty on your head, must've liked that shithole…"

"Yea, yea, guess I did like it once…but that's in the past…I'm here now with you, all that matters." Cullen told LeNore with a weak smile as he placed his hand on her cheek softly.

LeNore sighed deeply, something about Cullen's simple touch could calm her down. She gave him a half smile as he removed his hand from her rosy cheek and went back to handling his newspaper. "You gotta past and so do I, good idea to keep 'em buried." She told him as she finished up mending his shirt.

* * *

><p>A couple of days later the morning sun shined through the windows of the small cabin, a cabin that Bohannon himself had fixed up to make decent, as LeNore and Bohannon sat at their table eating breakfast and drinking coffee. Well, Bohannon was eating his breakfast like a hog while LeNore was picking at hers like a bird.<p>

"Not hungry?" Bohannon asked, with his mouth full of food, as he pointed to LeNore's picked at breakfast plate with his fork.

"Not really, no." LeNore simply replied as she pushed food around on her plate, holding back the urge to up chuck the very little bites that she had taken. Her stomach was a bit topsy-turvy that morning.

"Can I?" Cullen asked, pointing to the plate of food with his fork.

"Help yourself." She passed the plate over to him.

Cullen just plopped the eggs, grits, and sausage hastily on his plate. LeNore just shook her head. It baffled her how this man could eat so much but maintain a very well built body.

"So, no new jobs?" The caramel-wheat blonde asked her housemate as she held her coffee cup, debating on whether or not she wanted to take a sip.

"Nope." The Southern man simply said as he stuffed his scruffy bearded face with more food.

Before LeNore could open her mouth to ask Cullen if he had considered giving it up the wooden door flew open with a quick flash.

Both Cullen and LeNore immediately locked their eyes on the door. Frantically running in was Dr. Boone and in his arms was a passed out woman with a rounded baby belly. "Miners dropped her off, she's expecting and passed out. They said she's looking for you; name's Lily."

"Lily…Lily Bell…came looking for me…" Cullen gasped in shock under his breath as his steel eyes locked onto her ragdoll like form.

LeNore just looked at Lily and then to Cullen and sighed silently to herself. She knew that the end of her happy 3 months had just arrived. Arrived in the form of an expecting woman named Lily. A blonde to boot, not that fact made LeNore start to realize that perhaps she was just a replacement of Miss Lily.

LeNore knew by looking at Lily that the woman was nowhere near the proper date of delivery and that she looked like she had a fever of some sort. She had a baby early and would never wish that pain onto anyone. It was that fact that made her tell the addicted doctor, "Place her in the bed; I'll help you tend to her Boone."


	15. Ain't Fittin'

**Ain't Fittin'**

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><p><strong>This chapter's a bit heavy. Well, happy reading…<strong>

* * *

><p>LeNore ringed out the wet washcloth from the basin and placed it on Lily's forehead, trying to break her fever while Dr. Boone just sat in a corner chugging down a bottle of morphine. She sighed as she tried to cool off the pregnant woman, who in her opinion looked very haggard and looked like she hadn't been getting any rest. The woman stricken with fever was pale, paler then what would be considered healthy for a fair woman, and she had fevered mumbles. LeNore felt awful every time she saw Lily Bell thrash in the bed and incoherently mutter out the simple name of Cullen Bohannon.<p>

LeNore took a seat on the edge of the bed as studied the feverish woman's condition. It saddened her knowing that once this woman's fever broke that she'd be sending Cullen off to go back to the railroad with this woman, Lily. She wanted to be selfish, keep him for herself, but she couldn't do that cause deep down she knew it wasn't right. She felt that she was just a replacement for Lily, the woman that Bohannon had left whenever he ran away from the railroad.

Lily was sick and pregnant, most likely this fever would affect her baby, the lady needed Cullen far more then LeNore ever could. The caramel-wheat blonde acting as a nurse knew this and that's why she made up her mind to cut off ties from Cullen as soon as Lily was well again, she decided that she would tell him to go to the railroad camp with Lily and to never turn back for her. Tell him to stay at the railroad camp with Lily, the woman who had caught a fever while roaming around looking for him.

* * *

><p>Cullen sat in a chair in the front room of his cabin drinking some booze and just thinking absent mindedly. He was shocked, to say the very least, that Lily had been looking for him while being pregnant too. He began to worry about Lily and the lil babe she was carrying in her stomach, he wished that no harm would come to the child that was Lily's only reminder and connection to her late husband Robert Bell.<p>

He took a big gulp of the amber liquid as he stared at the door of the bedroom. He was thankful that LeNore had taken it upon herself to nurse Lily, since the doctor wasn't of much use. Honestly he wished Lily the best; he didn't want her to die or to lose her child. Hell, this would be the second time that Lily had succumbed to a fever state from roaming around in the wilderness.

For days Miss Lily Bell had been lying in bed with a bad fever, Cullen only hoped that she would be strong and get better.

* * *

><p>Her ears perked up as she thought she heard a faint whisper. She rolled her eyes at the doctor, who was passed out in a corner, and then got closer to the patient in the bed. "Did you say something, Ma'am?" She asked the blonde who's hair was dampened with a feverish sweat.<p>

"Where's Cullen? I want Cullen." Lily whispered out in a daze, he words soft and slow as the fever was clearly still with her.

"He's out front, ain't fit for him to see you like this burning with bad fever." LeNore honestly told the fever stricken woman.

"I want Cullen." Lily coughed out weakly.

LeNore shook her head, "You can't see him now, you ain't well 'nough yet. Ain't fittin' to see a feverish pregnant woman like this."

"Please, I want Cullen." Lily pleaded softly, her baby blues begging with a soulful plea.

LeNore sighed and bit her lip, blinking her eyes a few times before sitting on the bed by Lily. "I know you do but it'd be best for you to break the fever before he comes in."

Lily didn't like what the young woman with teal-blue eyes was telling her. She had spent so long looking for Cullen, she wanted to see him, she needed him, yet the blonde nurse kept on feeding her a line about how it wasn't fit to see him yet. Lily might be sick but she knew what she wanted. "I said I want Cullen." She spoke up, using all of her energy to make her request.

"You're weak, you need some rest and you need to break outta the fever. You'll see him once you get rested and are feverless." LeNore nicely told Lily as she got the washcloth from the basin by the bed.

"But-" Lily began to protest until she was nicely cut off.

"No buts, now let's get this fever broke so you can see him. Okay?" LeNore forced out a friendly but fake smile, trying her best not to show resentment towards the sickly woman.

Lily just nodded her head and gave a faint smile at the young woman nursing her as she wiped off her arms with the wet rag, in an attempt to break the fever.

* * *

><p>Once Dr. Boone had woken up from his drug induced slumber he took over tending to Lily while LeNore excused herself so that she could get to the kitchen and cook something along with seeing how Cullen was holding up.<p>

LeNore was stirring a boiling pot of chicken soup she was making while Cullen sat at the kitchen table, just keeping her company. "So, she getting any betters yet?"

"Her fever hasn't broke yet, so not really, no."

"My fault she's out here, fevered up and all."

"Hmm…" LeNore sighed, knowing full well it was his fault but not wanting to get into it with him. "But don't worry, she'll get better." She tried to boost up his spirits.

"How you know, you ain't God." Cullen said in a dark tone.

"Cause it's best to say that she'll get better than to say she'll lose the baby to fever or worse fall fatal to it!" LeNore lashed out at Cullen as she chucked the wooden soup spoon right over Cullen's head in a sudden bursting fit of anger.

"I-uh-I-uh-I'm gonna go see Miss Lily Bell." He said as he got up from the table, looking at the spot on the floor by his chair that the wooden spoon had landed after bouncing off the wall.

LeNore took a deep breath, to calm her nerves and anger, before telling him, "It ain't fittin', Cullen, she ain't doing too good."

"I've seen men blown up in front of me, buried my family, buried your baby, I think I can handle seeing a woman with fever." Cullen sneered at LeNore, his steel eyes boring a hole into her form. "Hell, wouldn't be the first time I be seeing her with fever." Cullen bitterly chuckled in the back of his throat, while still boring a hole into LeNore.

LeNore turned her attention back to the stove. She shut her eyes and sighed, "If you insist, Cullen, go ahead and see her."

* * *

><p>Even in her fever hazed state she heard his boots on the wooden floor as he entered the room. She opened her eyes slightly, seeing him standing near her bed and talking to the doctor. She couldn't make out what they were saying, she was too weak and tired, but she was glad that he was here; glad that he was here in the room with her.<p>

She saw the doctor's eyes roll and she saw Cullen, her Cullen, grab the bottle from him and smash it on the ground.

She was weak but willed herself to use all of her energy to whisper out, "Cullen."

The scruffy man with long dark hair, beginning to get silver streaks, and a bread half dark and half gray turned his attention from Dr. Muttleigh and quickly rushed over to where he heard the small sound come from.

He knelt by her side, gently pushed her hair from her head while checking for fever. "Lily, I never thought in my wildest dreams you'd come after me."

"I had to, I missed you." Lily said right before her fever dazed eyes fell shut, leading her into a sleep of fevered dreams.


	16. Brothers & Their Gals

**Brothers & Their Gals**

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><p>Refugees, mostly pioneers and settlers, from nearby Indian raids piled into the town of Durant, Nebraska looking for shelter, food, and work. Ruth's heart ached to see so many misfortunate people. They had come from all over, mostly from random settlements in Iowa or from other random places they had already passed by in Nebraska.<p>

She was in the kitchen of the church tent, boiling up a huge pot of soup for the refugees whenever Sean, her assistant pastor and now friend, walked up to her with a sad look across his pale face. "Miss Ruth, I heard some people talkin's, says an elder white man dressed as a preacher was riding with the attacking Indians."

Ruth just quickly nodded her head in understanding, in pain, in heartbreak, in shame. How could her father be so cruel, do such things?

It was as if Sean could read the young lass's thoughts cause he placed a hand on her back and pulled her into a comforting but also caring hug. They were silent for a while until Ruth broke it by mustering out, "Thank you, Sean, for telling me and not letting me overhear."

"Ruth, if ye needs to talk to me ye can."

"Thank you, Sean, but not now. Now I must help the misfortunate, must help the least of the least as Jesus has commanded of my service."

"Yes, Miss Ruth, I shall help ye by starting to bring out bowls to them." Sean simply said as he grabbed some bowls and scooped some of the hot chicken and potato chunky liquid into the bowls.

Sean cared about Ruth but he wasn't dumb, hell was had been a shrewd businessman once along with a liar and a cheat, he knew that now wasn't quite the right time to pursue a relationship with the young lass but he also knew that now was the time to let her know subtly that he was there for her when she needed him.

"Thank you, Sean." Ruth smiled weakly at Sean. For the first time, since well ever, she felt that maybe just maybe this man could be trusted. He was kind, had turned his life around, had arranged for the church's plot to be rent free from Durant himself. He wasn't all that bad, not like the other men in her life had been. Her father Reverend Cole had been a drunkard and her Joseph had gone back to his heathen roots.

* * *

><p>"You give us 25% of your earnin's." Mickey told a group of 4 new girls that Nell had just hired, as he stood next to Nell in the middle of the whorehouse. "I provide protection for all ye girls so don't gotta worry bout drunkards bashin' heads in."<p>

Nell, with a hand on her popped out hip, told her new girls, "Mickey stays here, if any of you girls have any problems with customers tell me and I'll get him or just go straight to him."

The new girls just nodded their heads, showing that they understood everything they were just told. All the girls felt that their new bosses seemed nice enough. The man owned the saloon so they figured they'd be able to roam around the bar at night to get a few fellas.

"Good, ye get to work." Mick told the new girls, a smile trying to cross his face which was stern and business like for the meeting.

"You heard him, now get!" Nell screeched at the 4 new girls, waving a hand at them, making them hurry off to their newly assigned rooms to start their days work.

"Aww, my sweet Nell, don't be too hard on 'em." Mickey told Nell as she picked up a broom and started to clean the floors of her whorehouse. "Just lost their homes to the injuns." Mickey yapped on.

Nell continued to sweep the floor while telling Mickey, "Hey, it's just business and they know that. Nothin' 'gainst them, they just gotta make money and get to work is all."

Mickey chuckled and then pulled Nell into a hug as he stood behind her. "You sure are something else, my lass." Mickey smiled and kissed Nell on the cheek.

"Ain't I." Nell simply responded with a sly smirk as she patted Mickey's smooth cheek.

* * *

><p>Durant sat at his fancy desk in his fancy railcar pouring himself glass after glass of Brandy. Oh, it had been 3 months now since Lily had disappeared, why couldn't he find her? Why was his head of security refusing to find her, better yet why was he refusing to hunt down Bohannon? Oh Bohannon, now that's a name that made the chubby ginger haired man's skin crawl. Oh how he hated the man that name belonged to.<p> 


	17. Sigh No More

**Sigh No More**

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><p><strong>I'm sorry for the late update but I was super busy and had no time.<strong>

* * *

><p>She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as her knuckles grasped the door knob. She opened her eyes, turned the knob, and walked out the door. She looked right at the scruffy man sitting in the living area of the cabin and told him, "Her fever's broke and she's going to make it but-"<p>

Before she could continue he cut her off, "But what?"

LeNore inhaled deeply before saying quickly, "But she can't stay here, Cullen."

"Why not, she's sick?" Cullen asked, not understanding what LeNore had initially meant when she just told him that Lily could no longer stay with them in the cabin.

"She needs to go back to where she came from, back to the railroad where there's prolly a doctor who can actually watch her good." LeNore explained, hoping that Cullen would get it through his thick skull that he was leaving with Lily.

Cullen clicked his tongue, "So, we're taking her to Nebraska?"

LeNore just shook her head and said with a straight face, "No, you are."

"Me?"

"Yes, you, you need to take her back."

"A'ight, it'd only take a week or so to ride her back; then-" Cullen was telling LeNore until she abruptly cut him off.

"Cullen, just stay in Nebraska and don't come back." LeNore quickly interrupted Cullen, hoping that he'd finally understand that he needed to leave with Lily and take care of that woman and that baby she was carrying in her womb.

"Oh, so you don't want me back?"

"No, I don't. I want you to just stay in Nebraska and just let me stay here."

"If that's what you want…" Cullen sighed, a lost look crossing over his rugged and weather worn face.

"She'll be fit for travels in a few days; I'll make sure your things are packed." LeNore informed him of when he could leave for the railroad.

"Don't bother, LeNore, I don't need you packing for me after evicting me." Cullen roared with a tone mixed with both confusion and anger.

LeNore held her calm composure, even though inside she really didn't want this, as she told him, "Cullen it's for the best."

Cullen got up and walked past LeNore, towards their room where Lily was in bed, while letting a grunt of "Bullshit" pass by his lips subtly.

* * *

><p>She was sitting up in bed, sipping on a spoonful of broth whenever she saw him walk in. Oh how his mere presence lit her up, gave her strength. She weakly smiled at him as he made his way over to her bedside. "Cullen, I've missed you."<p>

"Yea…" He responded, not really knowing what else to say really. He sat down on the edge of her bed and wrung his hands, staring at the ground, as he struggled to tell her, "Lily…uh…we're…we're…we're going back to Nebraska…together…I'm taking you back…"

Lily felt a bolt of energy rush into her petite body. She sat up straighter and placed the bowl of broth on the table near the bed and she lunged forward and captured Cullen in an embrace. "Oh, Cullen, you'll stay with me and help me?"

Cullen, who felt a bit awkward in the sudden embrace that the fair haired maiden had sprung on him just nodded his head and sighed heavily, "Yea…"

Lily smiled and went on to tell Cullen about how much she missed him and longed for him and also about how she went looking for him cause she felt something for him even though she was a widow carrying a dead man's child.

Funny thing though was that the words seemed to go right in and out of Cullen's ears. He just nodded and provided a thin line of what might be hinted to be a smile but he never said any words back. No, he just seemed to move his gaze from the floor to the door.

* * *

><p>"How long has he been in there with her?" Boone asked as he took a seat on the sofa next to his friend, LeNore, right after he got back from getting a package of liquid morphine from the posttelegram office.

"Not long, a few minutes, he just went in there." LeNore told her doctor friend as her eyes looked at the door.

"You told him, what you told me you were going to tell him, didn't you?"

"Yea."

"I can tell; you look like someone ran you over with a train."

"Haha, very funny." She sneared sarcastically as she slummed further into the couch while staring at the door.

"You waiting for him to walk out of there?"

"No, why you ask?"

"You keep staring at the door." Boone made the obvious observation known to his friend.

LeNore was at a loss for words so she just let out a mix of a sigh and a chuckle, one that sounded defeated and sad.

"You don't want him to go, I can tell, so why are you shutting him out of your life?"

She sighed deeply before explaining, "She needs him more then I do; he needs to be with her and hell he prolly wants her more then me too."

"I don't think that's true; I think you need him more that she does. He also needs you too; he must want you cause he bought this house and is raising money to buy cattle and crops. He talks bout wanting to expand the house into a ranch and-"

"Just shut up, Boone Muttleigh, just shut up and never talk about that ranching stuff ever again!" LeNore shouted in a sudden rage, one that even surprised her.

"Fine, I won't, but we both know that you're making a mistake.", Boone told her before he got up from the sofa and left the house in order to go to where he was staying at.


	18. Nobody Wants To Be Alone

**Nobody Wants To Be Alone**

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><p><strong>Alrighty this is the cliffhanger turning point chapter. Anything can happen after this chapter! Muhahaha, anyways read &amp; review &amp; enjoy!<strong>

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><p>The 4 walls of wood around her felt like they were caving in. She wanted out, she craved his attention and she wanted to see him. The more days she spent in bed the less of a say so she had in how long and when she saw him. Damn it, she hadn't seen him in a whole day and it was driving her crazy. She just looked out the window wishing she was with him whenever the door opened and she smiled.<p>

"Oh, Cullen, where were you? You've finally come to see me?" Lily asked with excitement as she saw that ruggedly handsome man of few words walk into the room she was isolated in.

He said nothing, just shook his head no, and grabbed his saddle bag and bed roll from the closet and left.

Lily was curious on why he had a bedroll and a saddle bag in the closet. Surely if this was his house he'd just let her stay with him instead of dragging them back to Nebraska, she mulled in her mind.

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><p>She looked out the small kitchen window and saw that the daylight was getting dimmer; an indication that dusk was falling down on the sky. She then heard a floorboard creak under the weight of a heavy boot so she turned her head to see who was there. What she saw was Cullen walking out of their room with his saddle bag bulging full along with a saddle bag tucked under his arm. "Cullen, I said that I would pack your things. Why'd you go ahead and do it for, I was going to do it right after finishing up dinner." She told him as she saw him set down his things near the doorway.<p>

Cullen turned around and looked at LeNore as she was looking at him from her place at the kitchen stove and told her, with a bit more venom then he meant, "And I told you I don't need you packin' for me. No need for you to pack for me; stuff here ain't mine anyways, is yours."

"What the hell, Cullen? Of course you have stuff here. Your clothes, those dime novels you picked up at the general store, them tools." LeNore had said while Cullen walked into the kitchen to inspect what she was making in the cook pot.

"Nah, all I need's the clothes on my back, a bedroll, my guns, and my saddle bag." Cullen said with a hard smirk as he dipped his finger into the stew pot in order to get a small sample taste.

"Of course, leave just how you arrived." She rolled her eyes and moved to the table where she braced herself and took a deep breath since she was feeling a bit ill and hot.

"Meanin'?" Cullen asked as he stood by the stove.

"Nothin', Cullen, nothin'." LeNore just shook her head and sat down at table.

"LeNore." Cullen said with a gentleness to his voice as he walked over to where his lady was. "You really don't want this do you?" He asked as he sat down next to her at the table.

All LeNore did was look down at her hands that were in her lap as she refused to answer him.

"LeNore?" Cullen asked her sweetly as he placed a finger under her chin, tilting it up to look at him.

"Stew should be done, I need to bring some to Lily so she can bring up her strength for the trip soon." LeNore said as she quickly broke the gently touch of Cullen's finger under her chin as she turned her head and jumped up from the chair.

Lily was so tired of spending her time in bed making sure she wouldn't get a relapse of sickness. Hell, she wanted to be with Cullen not in bed. She was sad and disappointed that Cullen didn't come to see all day accept to get his saddle bag a short while ago.

The sound of the door opening put a smile on her face until she saw the young, blonde, infernal nurse enter with a bowl. Oh, how Lily was getting tired of that nurse. She felt that the nurse must've told Cullen to leave her be so she could heal better or something of the sort.

Lily's mind was broken of her ill thought about her nurse whenever the woman said, "I brought you some beef and vegetable stew."

"Thank you, very much for your kindness." Lily placed a fake smile and politeness on as the nurse put the bowl on the bedside table.

"Do you need anything else, Miss Lily?" The nurse asked with a forced smile.

"No, but can you tell Cullen I'd like to see him?" Lily asked, trying her best to be nice to her nurse.

"I'll do that, Lily; hope you enjoy the stew." The nurse said before quickly making her way out the door.

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><p>The sky grew darker and the oil lamp's radiating light danced about the room as he chewed on his meat and vegetables. He saw her walk out of their room and noticed a look of regret on her face, he didn't know why but he wanted to know what was going on with her. She had seemed just fine before Lily had arrived on their front doorstep.<p>

Cullen smirked at her while he saw her making her way to the cook pot. "I'm gonna miss your cookin', food ain't too good in Hell on Wheels ya know." Cullen told LeNore, while gobbling down his bowl of stew, while she grabbed herself a bowl and sat down by him.

LeNore stired her stew with her spoon for a bit before simple remarking, "Hmm, guess not."

"So, you gonna move Boone in when I'm gone to help ya out I reckon?" Cullen said in between spoonfuls of his stew.

LeNore almost spit out her meal as she quickly reacted with, "Nope, don't want him in the same house as me."

"So, you're kicking me out to live alone?" Cullen raised a brow and shot her a confused look.

"Mhm." LeNore nodded as she continued to eat.

"Bullshit, why'd you want to live alone?" Cullen asked while taking a large slug of whiskey from the bottle he had of the table.

"I'm fine being alone." LeNore answered as she looked away from Cullen and into her stew bowl.

"No you're not." Cullen told her, he told her sternly and knowingly. He had been living with her long enough now to know that she hated being alone.

"Well, you're a loner so-" LeNore started until she was abruptly cut off.

"So what, LeNore? Thought we agreed to give each other time, not just part ways?"

LeNore shook her head and ate a spoon full of stew before telling him, "Cullen, just eat your stew…"

"No, I don't understand why you're kicking me out when you don't sound too thrilled about it. What's wrong, LeNore?" Cullen asked in a tone that was soft and caring, a true contradiction to the demeanor he held in his life in the West.

LeNore just looked at him and sighed.

Yes, what exactly was wrong? Could she tell him, would she tell him? Could she keep him as hers, did she want to, or would she hand him off to the expectant mother Miss Lily Bell?


	19. Cullen's Special Lady

**Sorry for the long wait & delay. Been super busy. I'm currently trying to write a book so...Anyways enjoy! Read & Review! Leave feedback & suggestions about the Lily/Cullen/LeNore thing too! **

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><p><strong>Cullen's Special Lady<strong>

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><p>Cullen looked at LeNore with concerned eyes. "LeNore, I asked what's wrong?"<p>

"Uh, nothin', but um Miss Lily would like to see you." LeNore told Cullen as she stared down into her bowl.

"Good for her but I'd rather find out what's wrong with you, she can wait." Cullen told LeNore as he watched her eat a few bits before pushing her bowl away.

"She really wants to see you and you're just about done eating so-"

"Are you tryin' to push me on her?" Cullen asked, anger flaring up in his booming voice.

"No, Cullen, it's just that she's pregnant and-" LeNore began to explain until she was cut off.

"And do you think it's mine?" Cullen tossed his spoon in his now empty bowl, looking at LeNore.

"She came lookin' for you; she's clearly in love with you." LeNore told him as she gathered up their bowls and went over to the counter where that the wash basin was to clean the bowls.

"I'm not in love with her, LeNore, hell I barely knew her. She was widowed 'round the same time I started work as a foreman." Cullen explained as he got up from the table and went over to where LeNore was at.

"Hmm…" She just mumbled as she quickly washed a bowl and dried it.

"Her husband was killed when injuns attacked Nebraska and I found her when riding to a logging camp. She was in boss man Durant's car til she got her own tent right 'fore I left. Could be his for all I know." Cullen explained to LeNore as he watched her wash another bowl and dry it before putting both bowls away in a cabinet near her head.

"Hmm…" Was all LeNore had to say as she quickly washed and dried the spoons.

"See, nothin' between us. She's just a friend if that." Cullen told LeNore as he got closer to her.

"Sure, try telling her that. She seems very possessive of you; I'm telling you Cullen she wants you." LeNore sighed as she leaned against the counter by the wash basin.

"Alright, but right now I want you." Cullen breathed right into LeNore's ear, whispering in such a tone that made her spine shiver.

She put some distance between her and Cullen while sighing uneasily, "Cullen…"

"Come to Nebraska with me." Cullen cooed as he began to close the distance between him and LeNore.

"I don't think so." LeNore shook her head and pushed her way past Cullen.

LeNore walked out of the kitchen with Cullen hot on her heels. "Yes, come with me and if you don't like it we can come back here." He told her, hoping she'd agree to come with him.

LeNore stopped in the middle of the floor and shook her head while turning to look at Cullen. "Cullen…no...just…no…"

Cullen went up to LeNore and grabbed her hands. "I can always get my job back; hear Durant needs a foreman since his got stuck like a pig."

"Good, then go get your job back."

"Oh, you'll come with me." Cullen smirked, knowing he was going to convince her to go to Nebraska with him.

"You're so sure of that ain't ya?" LeNore asked with a brow raised.

"Mhm." Cullen mumbled and nodded his head before kissing LeNore on the lips in a slow motion full of a desire he was hungry to fill.

Oh, that night he was going to convince her to go with him the following morning and he knew that since he couldn't convince her with words then he would have to do it with actions, pleasurable ones at that.

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><p>The sun had just peered into the sky, marking the dawn of day, as Cullen was hitching the horse to the wagon. Today was when he'd bring Lily back to the railroad camp. As he was making sure the horse was secured tightly he heard the door slam open, looking over his shoulder he saw LeNore trudging towards him and the wagon with a bag in her hand. He just smirked at her, causing her to roll her eyes.<p>

"See you decided to come to Nebraska after all, guess our talk last night worked huh." He said with a chuckle as she stood next to him by the wagon.

"Yea, well, don't let your ways of last night's persuasions get to your head." She told him with half a smile as she tossed the bag into the back of the wagon.

"Yea, you liked it, it worked." Cullen boasted with a smirk and gave LeNore a quick wink.

"Hmm…" LeNore sighed over her rose hued lips. "Oh, I better go wake up Lily so we can go."

"Yea, I got a spot fixed in the wagon for her." Cullen told LeNore as she made her way to the front door of the cabin. "Oh, and you'll be sitting next to me." Cullen made sure he added in a velvety tone just to get a rise out of LeNore.

LeNore was something special to Cullen, reminded him somewhat of Mary in a way and he could only assume that perhaps he reminded her of the lover she had lost during the war as well.

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><p>LeNore went into the bedroom and saw that Lily had just awakened and was yawning. "It's time to get you outta bed and to the wagon. Cullen thinks it's best that you lay in the back and get rest."<p>

"Oh, yes, but I'm sure I can sit with him instead of lying in the back." Lily protested as she shot up in bed, ready to get out of Colorado with Cullen.

"No, you're laying in the back." LeNore shook her head and told her as she fought to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

Lily crossed her arms and pouted in a bratty tone, "Fine, but only because he insists on me doing so."

"Good, now if you'd like to change I have an old dress or so of mine that might fit you."

"Yes, thank you very much." Lily told her nurse as the woman dug through a small trunk in the room, looking for a maternity dress.

LeNore could feel Lily staring at her as she looked in her old trunk for a dress Lily could use. It made her feel uncomfortable; actually Lily's mindset of Cullen made LeNore uncomfortable. Once LeNore found the dress she gave it to Lily and told her, "Here, this should fit you."

Lily just nodded and took the dress.

"I'll leave so you can dress, just come out to the wagon when you're ready."

*~!

The sun was bright and nearly blinded LeNore and Cullen as they sat on the front bench of the wagon, waiting for Lily to dress and come out of the house. It didn't take long before Lily emerged from the house with a disgusted look on her face while asking, "What's she doing sitting with you, you're not taking her to Nebraska with us are you?"

"Miss Bell, LeNore's my special lady; she goes where I seem fit. Now, get in the wagon. I'm sure Durant's looking for you, both of you." Cullen gruffly told Lily as he nodded to the back of the wagon with his head.

LeNore could feel the daggers shooting at her from the eyes of Lily as the woman huffed while walking over to the wagon. She knew the pregnant woman was mad as she settled into the back of the wagon.

Nobody said a word as the wagon took off down the road.


	20. The Foreman's Back

**The Foreman's Back**

Elam Ferguson made his patrol round among the large and dirty rail town whenever he spotted a large wagon rolling into the beginning edge of town. He squinted his brown eyes to get a better look and gasped as he made out that the driver of the wagon was Bohannon, with him was a blonde he's never seen before and they were toting with them something in the wagon. Elam shook his head and then went to get a horse so that he could ride up to Bohannon and hear firsthand what was going on.

After a minute or so Elam was on horseback and rode up to Bohannon's wagon, seeing that what was in the wagon was a sleeping Miss Lily Bell. "Bohannon, what drags you's back?" Elam asked his friend while shooting him a curious but confused look.

"Elam, didn't know you'd be my welcome home party." Bohannon chuckled before seriously replying with, "Lily wandered half dead in my Colorado town, me and my special lady here fixed her up and agreed to bring her back to the railroad."

"Damn, you gotta woman now?" Elam asked in a whistle with wide eyes and a grin.

LeNore just shook her head as she listened to Cullen and the freed man talk about her like she wasn't sitting right there.

Cullen's tongue clicked as he said simply, "Yep, name's LeNore."

"LeNore Bohannon?" Elam asked with a sly smile.

"No, Seaford." LeNore answered the man who was riding alongside the wagon on his own steed.

Elam just nodded his head in understanding, hell he was a freed man married to a tattooed white woman who used to be an Indian slave and cheap dollar whore so he wasn't going to judge the relationship details of his friend and the caramel blonde sitting next to him.

"Heard Durant's needing a new foreman." Cullen's voice chuckled as his eyes glinted, hinting he had plans of some sort.

"Yea, last one got himself stuck like a hog for beatin' a whore t'death." Elam explained what had happened to the last foreman. "But Durant wants your head, still wanted posters out for big gold eagles."

"Durant needs a foreman; he used to be his foreman, so I don't think he'll be turning him over to the law unless he wants his road to be only to Nebraska instead of to the California coast." LeNore informed the man, who she assumed was a friend of Cullen's, why Cullen would be a valuable asset to this horrid Durant.

"True, true, but that man be crazy. He wants Lily too." Elam informed LeNore of the real reason Durant wanted Cullen's head, in a subtle way of course.

"Good, he can have her." LeNore snapped as they rolled into town, not really caring what happened to Lily now.

Elam didn't say a thing, he just nodded his head and then proceeded to ride off in another direction to do his duty of patrolling the town.

Cullen just chuckled to himself and shook his head as he drove the buggy through town, causing everyone to stop and stare at him since most people never dreamt he'd be back.

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><p>Durant was sulking in his car, glass of fine bourbon in his tight grasp, whenever his attention was suddenly turned to the creaking of his door opening. He dropped his crystal glass on the ground, causing it to shatter, as he looked upon that beautiful blonde only noticing her haggard face and swollen belly. "My, my, Lily, what has happened to you for you to return in such a state?" His voice cracked out as his pudgy form rose from his chair and rushed over to the poster girl for his railroad.<p>

Before Lily could utter a word Durant heard a female voice behind him say, "She wandered into Colorado like a fool."

Durant turned around to find a slender caramel blonde now standing in his rail car. He was about to ask who she was until he saw that wretched man he loathed step into the railcar and take his stand next to the mysterious blonde. "Bohannon!" Durant exclaimed with fury, anger, and venom seeping from his mouth.

"Durant." Bohannon said with ice in his voice and a hard face frozen without any hint of emotion. "I brought you back Lily, she wound up stumbling through my town half dead with fever." Cullen explained all while Durant was gently helping Lily sit down in an arm chair near his desk.

"I see." Was all Durant could say as he rubbed Lily's shoulder, showing his affection concern for her well-being, as he stood next to her.

"Thomas, I went looking for Mr. Bohannon so that he could help us with the railroad. Our railroad, we agreed to build it together." Lily said in a faint voice with a slight smile.

LeNore's eyes had bulged out of her head almost; she couldn't believe what she was witnessing and could only think, _This woman was professing her undying love for Cullen in Colorado in my home and now here she is in shithole Nebraska batting her eyes and talking sweetly with this chubby feller._

_Good God, it's Durant's bastard! _Cullen instantly thought as he watched Lily say faint words to Durant, the chubby ginger leaning in closer to the blonde beauty that was swollen with child.

_I will not let Durant turn in Cullen, I won't let him be taken from my heart for I couldn't take it if he was. _Lily thought to herself as she played Durant like a fiddle with cheap words and promises. "Thomas, I promised to stay with you to build this road. I gave you the maps, how can I stay if the road's not being built?" Lily asked Durant while Cullen and LeNore just stood and watched her practicing her womanly charms.

"Lily, I already wired for plenty of candidates to interview for the foreman position."

"But, Thomas, the men respect him and you have to admit that since Mr. Bohannon was once an officer in the great American Civil War and lead's men well due to it." Lily spoke up with determination in her still faint voice. "We need him to finish our road, I refuse to stay here if the road's not progressing and we both know for it to do that he must resume his old position."

Lenore just bit her lip while thinking, _What is she doing? She's convincing this tyrant to give Cullen his job back? What in Sam's hill? _

_Looks like I got my job back, no man wants to see their woman and baby walk off and leave. _Bohannon thought as he watched the way Lily was threatening to leave Nebraska if she didn't get to choose the foreman of her liking.

"Fine, Bohannon's back on." Durant said in a huff, causing Lily to place a small but thankful smile on her lips. "Bohannon…" Durant groaned as he turned to look at the man he despised. "You start as foreman tomorrow morning, go find the damn foreman tent and take your eh whore with you."

Cullen just nodded his head with uneasiness on his face. He didn't want to correct Durant for fear that his job and pardon would be thrown down the shitter. Cullen took Lenore's arm in his and he knew he had to get her out of the railcar fast.

Too Late, LeNore opened her outraged mouth before Cullen could drag her off. "Excuse me but I ain't a whore."

"You're with him, one could only assume since he hangs out at bars shooting and killing plus he fights everyone and get's drunk every night." Durant chuckled with amusement as he stood by Lily's chair.

"You think you're so –" LeNore began to scream until Cullen quickly yanked her out of the railcar.

As soon as the door slamed shut Durant chuckled meanly, "Well, looks like the uncivilized are gone for the day."

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><p>"LeNore, what in God's green earth where you thinkin' back there? You could've gotten me hunged!" Cullen grumbled to his caramel haired lady as he drug her into their new home, the tent marked 'Foreman'.<p>

"He called me a whore and you did nothin', what I was thinkin' was to defend my honor."

"Hell, your honor was lost a long time ago during the war darlin', along with mine." Cullen said but was met with a head turning, cheek stinging, slap in the face before he could finish his sentence.

"Go to hell, straight to the devil himself, you black-hearted bastard!" LeNore screamed right before she dashed out of the tent, leaving Cullen stunned in disbelief at what had just happened.

_Hell, since when do she get that moody. Not like we've never talked bout that before. _Cullen shook his head as he looked around the tent. _Least there's corn likker here, plenty too. _He smiled as he saw a pile of bottles in the corner that were filled up with his favorite amber liquid.

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><p>While in her frazzled state of mind LeNore ran and ran and suddenly found herself in the tree lined open land far from the traveling town of Hell On Wheels. She took a long, deep, panted breath and then decided to head back to town. This time walking since she was so tired.<p>

She knew that running off was foolish but she just got so upset, she wanted to cry but didn't want Cullen to see her cry. Hell, she didn't even know why she'd gotten so upset but she did. It wasn't like they never talked out their past, they did. They knew a lot about each other, but this time it just caught her the wrong way.

As she began to take the long walk back to town she heard strange noises echoing in the air. She continued to walk, ignoring the noises, even though she felt physically drained and wanted to rest. Her eyes blinked when she thought she saw something in the brush. She began to get scared, fear was crawling up her spine and she knew now how very, very, very, stupid she was for running from town; from Cullen.


	21. Lost In The Wicked Woods

**Finally after bad writers block (& idea bouncing from a good friend) I update with a new chapter! So, Season 3 premiere was something huh? Anyways R&R!**

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><p><strong>Lost In The Wicked Woods<strong>

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><p>LeNore shook her head, telling herself that she was seeing things and no way was it possible for there to be anything rushing around behind the trees. She was halfway through the thick forest trees whenever she began to feel light-headed and dizzy. She stopped by a tree and used her hand to brace herself against the dark rough bark of the tree. <em>Last time I felt so dizzy and sick like this I was…I was pregnant! <em>LeNore thought to herself as her eyes widened with realization. She began to think back to when she had last gotten her monthly flow and she could not truly remember, guessing maybe a couple of months or so ago. She placed her small hand on her stomach and noticed that her stomach wasn't flat anymore, but was now a tiny bit pudgy. She shook her head and walked away from the tree, now knowing that she must be 2 or even 3 months pregnant with Cullen's child. _I've got'a tell him when I get back. _She told herself as she quickened her steps. _I hope he wants it. We've never talked bout children or the possibility of 'em. _LeNore thought as she walked in the direction she was sure would take her back to the rail camp.

LeNore froze when she heard a loud cry, in a language she didn't know, coming from behind her. Her heartbeat quickened as she turned around to see if anything was behind her. To her horror she was staring at a group of Indians. With her voice lost, not able to scream for help, she turned around and ran as fast as she could. LeNore ran, looking over her shoulder to see the Indians chasing after her, and ran as she tried to get out of the woods overflowing with danger. While running she tripped over an exposed tree root and toppled over onto the ground. Too weak, tired, and exhausted to push herself back up she began to claw crazily at the ground as she tried to quickly crawl off and away from her attackers.

Suddenly she felt her caramel locks being grasped harshly. LeNore still clawed at the ground in an attempt to get away all the while an Indian was dragging her up by her hair. She felt a sting go through her knee as she felt a sharp twig or tree root slice through it as she was fighting being drug up by the Indian man. She screamed in agony as she was pulled up to her feet, her scalp and hair feeling as if they were on fire.

She saw a group of painted Indian men grinning at her evilly. The one holding her hair walked around to face her. He had told her something in his native tongue before stroking her cheek. Her reaction to this was spitting in his face, which lead to her being yelled at and back handed in the face so hard the she landed on the ground. While laying helplessly in the dark dirt she grasped her just pudgy belly, hoping that nothing bad would happen to the baby growing inside of her.

She heard the Indians talking amongst each other and then she felt herself being picked up by her arm. One of them asked her something she didn't understand so she just stared blankly at him. The one holding her arm just happened to be the same man that had yanked her up by the hair on her head. His eyes caught hold of the small necklace glimmering in the sunlight on her neck. The necklace was simple, a gold chain with a gold caged white pearl, and was something Cullen had given LeNore after one of his first train robberies with the Hawkins Gang. "No!" LeNore screamed suddenly as the man yanked the necklace off of her neck, tossing is to the ground. The man said something she didn't understand as he took some rope from a pack around his waist, tying LeNore's hands together.

The men had exchanged words before walking off, dragging a tired and beaten LeNore with them. With her hands tied she knew she was now a prisoner at the mercy of these natives.

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><p>Cullen sat in the tent, bottle in his hand, as he noticed the light in the sky dimming. He took out his pocket watch and viewed the time, his stomach making a large gurgling sound. <em>Just bout dinner time. <em>He thought as he placed the watch back into his pocket. _LeNore should've been back by now, wonder what's goin' on. Place ain't that big to get lost in. _He shook his head as he thought to himself. He noticed that peeking out of LeNore's bag was her guns, guns that she hadn't really worn since he began consorting with her. He knew how dangerous the dirty rail town was and an unarmed woman was a prime target for bad things. Cullen quickly got up from the bed he was sitting on and grabbed his jacket. _I'll ask Elam if he seen her, I'll ask around or find her somewhere 'round here. _Cullen thought to himself as he pulled on his coat all the while exiting his tent swiftly without haste.

His dark brown leather boots squished and squeaked as he walked in the mud, making his way towards the lawman's office in the far distance. "Excuse me." Cullen got the attention of a man sitting outside of a tent he was passing. "Have you seen a blonde woman bout this high," Cullen raised his hand to his shoulder to emphasize the height of LeNore, "in a blue flower dress?" He asked the stranger.

"Nope, can't say that I have." The stranger shook his head.

"A'ight, thanks anyways." Cullen nodded before walking off.

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><p>After asking just about every person he saw about LeNore he finally made it to the car that was the hub of the security operations. He barged right into the white painted car while gruffly asking, "Elam, seen my LeNore?"<p>

Elam, who was relaxing behind his desk in a chair, sat up straight and gave Cullen a confused look.

"She stormed off, can't find her."

"Oh, I see." Elam nodded his head in understanding. "Nope, haven't seen her." Elam answered Cullen's initial question. "But," Elam sat up straight in his chair behind his desk, "I can help ya look if you's want?"

"No thanks, I'll find her myself. My woman ain't your affair." Cullen shot down Elam's offer of help.

"A'ight then, suit yourself." Elam said as Cullen left the left the security office car.

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><p>Cullen was now out of town and in the lush forest. He had walked out of town and to the woods after being tipped off by a man with a mouth of nearly half rotten teeth that told him when asked "Y'sir, saw a lady in a flowered blue dress rannin' out o'town headed in them woods yonder."<p>

"LeNore, you here?" Cullen called out as he cautiously walked around the thick brush in the woods. "LeNore?" He called louder as his eyes searched about crazily. "LeNore, where ya at?" He cried, picking up his pace.

Cullen noticed something shinny amongst the dark, dirt, forest floor so he bent down to investigate. His calloused hands picked up the shinny object and to his horror it was LeNore's necklace, broken at the clasp. _She was here, this proves it. _Cullen thought as he stood up. He began to walk away but stopped whenever he saw a piece of bloody light blue floral fabric snagged on an exposed root on the floor. Cullen bent down and picked up the piece of fabric. He closed his eyes and sighed, knowing that by the evidence he collected she was taken and that it was most likely by Indians. _I'll have to ask Joseph for help, him and the preacher'll know where the local Injuns is._ Cullen thought to himself as he stood up, readying himself for the sprint back to the tent town.


End file.
